SERMONS, 



GEORGE W. BETHUNE, 

Minister of the Third Reformed Dutch Church, Philadelphia. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

MENTZ & ROVOUDT, 53 NORTH THIRD STREET, 

John C. Clark, Printer, 60 Dock Street. 

1846. 




Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1846, by Mentz & Rovoudt, in 
Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



STEPHEN PRUST, ESQ. 

(Of Bristol. England,) 
THE FRIEND OF MY FATHER, 
THE FRIEND OF MY FATHER'S WIDOW, 

AND 

THE FRIEND OF MY FATHER' S CHILDREN; 

IN 

VENERATION FOR HIS PIOUS WORTH, 

UNWEARIED PHILANTHROPY 

AND 

SUCCESSFUL ZEAL, 
THE FOLLOWING PAGES 

ARE 

GRATEFULLY 
DEDICATED. 



The author, having been often asked to print single sermons, 
which as pamphlets have had a short-lived usefulness, now yields to 
the wishes of some friends, and puts forth a volume containing a few 
discourses, in the hope that, by the blessing of God, they may do 
good. The prospect of their being widely read, when there are so 
many better books, is small; yet the attempt to serve the cause of 
our beloved Master is pleasant, and, if He smile upon it, will be suc- 
cessful, not in the proportion of our talent, but of his grace. The 
selection has been made out of the discourses preached by the author 
from his own pulpit, with some regard to variety, but, principally, to 
the practical character of their subjects. He hopes, that nothing will 
be found in them displeasing to any evangelical Christian ; but he is 
sure, that he has frankly given his own views of truth. As they were 
written for oral delivery, with the aid of living gesture and emphasis, 
he has had, while reading the proofs, not a little fear lest his mean- 
ing might sometimes be more obscure than if he had chosen a more 
didactic style. He now trusts what he has preached with an earnest 
heart and voice, to the kindness of his reader's attention, and the 
applying power of that Holy Spirit, without whose aid preacher and 
author must alike fail. Some will read his printed pages with the 
same affectionate interest which has been, under God, his greatest 
encouragement to preach; but whether, beyond the number of those 
few dear friends, he can gain the favourable regard of any others, 
remains to be seen. He asks God that he may, for the glory of his 
Lord, the salvation of his fellow-men, and his own reward in being 
made an instrument of the Saviour's will. 



Philadelphia, January, 1846. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Sermon I. A Divine Nature, 9 

II. Good News for the Poor, 29 

III. The Healing Touch of Christ's Garment, .... 49 

IV. The Spirit of the World and the Spirit of Christianity, 73 
V. The Good Shepherd, or the Psalm of Faith, ... 99 

VI. Faith, our best Reason, .......... 121 

VII. How to use the World, as not abusing it, ... . 137 

VIII. Faith in the Son of God, Victorious, ...... 155 

IX. The Way to Win Good Wages, ....... 177 

X. Love of Human Praise, fatal to Faith, ..... 195 

XI. The Dignity of Serving, . . , 215 

XII. Victory through Christ, over Death and the Grave, . 241 

XIII. Eternal Day, 265 

XIV. Longing for Rest, . . . 289 



SERMON I. 



DIVINE NATURE. 



A DIVINE NATURE. 



2 Peter i. 4. Partakers of the divine nature. 

The text occurs in the salutation with which the 
apostle Peter opens his epistle to those, who had 
" obtained like precious faith with him through the 
righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus 
Christ." 

" Grace and peace he multiplied unto you 
through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our 
Lord, according as his divine power hath given 
unto us all things that pertain unto life and god- 
liness, through the knowledge of him that hath 
called us to glory and virtue; whereby are given 
unto us exceeding great and precious promises; 
that by these ye might be partakers of the divine 
nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the 
world through lust. 

"And beside this, giving all diligence, add to 
your faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and 
to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, pa- 



12 



A DIVINE NATURE. 



tience; and to patience, godliness; and to godli- 
ness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kind- 
ness, charity. For if these things be in you and 
abound, they make you that ye shall be neither 
barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord 
Jesus Christ." 

The doctrine taught is, that believers are enabled 
to escape the corruption of the world, and to adorn 
their lives with holy Christian graces, by being 
made 

" Partakers of the divine nature." 

Let us, therefore, inquire the signification of a 
phrase so striking and important. 

A more correct rendering of the original would 
be, " Partakers of a divine nature;" for the definite 
article is an interpolation, our translators probably 
supposing that the apostle meant " Partakers of the 
Holy Spirit's sanctifying power," which, though in- 
cluded, is not all of what we are to understand by 
the words. The Christian can in no sense be a 
partaker of the divine essence, but is made by the 
Holy Ghost partaker of a divine nature, or of a 
nature resembling the divine so far as a creature 
may resemble his infinite Creator. 

This use of the term " divine," is not peculiar to 
the Scripture, but is common in the Greek and 



A DIVINE NATURE. 



13 



Latin philosophical writings. Their strongest ar- 
guments for the practice of high virtue were derived 
from a belief, that the soul was not material and 
corruptible, but spiritual and immortal, like God. 
Hence they applied to it the epithet divine, or god- 
like, as we read in this fine passage of Cicero : — 
"For he that hath known himself will perceive that 
he has something within him, divine as it were, an 
image dedicated to the Deity. Thus he will think 
and act worthily of so great a gift, and by the study 
of eternal things shadowed forth in the works of 
nature, will he learn that the good man, and the 
good man only, is destined to be happy; and, con- 
trasting the things which are perishing with those 
which are eternal, he will look upon himself as an 
inhabitant of the universe, and despise and count as 
nothing, those matters which are accounted valua- 
ble by ordinary men."* What was dim, though 
sublime conjecture to those best of the ancients, is 
holy certainty to the student of the Scriptures ; and 
heavy should be the reproach of Christians, if they 
draw no sanctifying strength from a revealed truth, 
the shadow of which gave to a heathen aspirations 
so lofty. 

The sense of the apostle in the text may be ga- 
thered under two heads : 

* De Legibus, Lib. I. § 23, 24. 



A DIVINE NATURE, 



First: Christians are partakers of a divine 
nature, because they are constituted in a like- 
NESS to God. 

Secondly: Christians are partakers of a di- 
vine NATURE, BECAUSE THEY ARE ADMITTED TO A 
BLESSEDNESS RESEMBLING THAT OF GOD. 

First: Christians are partakers of a divine 
nature, because they are constituted in a like- 
NESS to God. 

The most remarkable fact of creation was the 
making of man in the image of God; and the most 
remarkable blessing wrought for the sinner by the 
grace of Christ, is the renewal in his soul of its lost 
resemblance to the Father of his spirit. The se- 
cond is a more glorious repetition of the first. The 
same almighty Word which called man into exist- 
ence, renews him unto holiness; as the apostle 
says, "Ye are born not of corruptible seed, but of 
incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth 
and abideth forever." The same almighty Spirit, 
which breathed into man the breath of life, makes 
the divine word efficient, as our Lord teaches us 
when he says, "Except a man be born of water 
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of 
God." The same term " creation," which implies 
divine energy, is applied to both acts. " So God 



A DIVINE NATURE. 



15 



created man in his own image," is the language of 
the historian. "We are his workmanship, created 
in Christ Jesus unto good works," is the language 
of the apostle. 

This resemblance of newly created man, whether 
in his first being, or his regeneration, to his God 
cannot lie in his outward form, and must be spi- 
ritual. The holy angels, who are pure, intelligent 
spirits, are called Sons of God, and, therefore, must 
bear a likeness to their Father. A sympathy be- 
tween them and man in holy being, is fully esta- 
blished by the declarations of Scripture, that they 
shall both be gathered together in one by Christ, the 
Head of the church and the Lord of hosts (Eph. i. 
10); that they both will inhabit one spiritual hea- 
ven, and that the children of the resurrection are 
as the angels of God, being, like them, children of 
God (Luke xx. 36). 

The resemblance is moral. "The new man," 
says the apostle in Colossians, "is renewed in 
knowledge after the image of Him that created 
him;" and, in Ephesians, he exhorts us to "put 
on the new man, which, after God, is created in 
righteousness and true holiness." In these three 
qualities, knowledge, righteousness and holiness, 
the renewed soul is like God. 

Knowledge is an attribute of intelligent being, and 



16 



A DIVINE NATURE. 



a Christian soul resembles its Creator according to 
the degree and truth of its knowledge. The Crea- 
tor is omniscient, and the source of all knowledge. 
Man can learn only from His teaching, and, there- 
fore, the likeness he has to God, consists, not in 
his having original omniscience, but in a hearty 
reception of the truth which God has revealed. 
When the mind, like a pure, calm lake, reflects 
back the light which is shed from heaven, the 
image of God is upon it commensurate with its ca- 
pacity, for the tiniest drop of dew images forth the 
true, though not full radiance of the sun. A clear, 
confiding trust in the wisdom of God, has, so far as 
needed by the Christian, all the advantage of om- 
niscience ; for, as God cannot err, that soul which 
relies upon his truth cannot. 

Righteousness, as distinguished from holiness, 
concerns the relations which an intelligent being 
sustains to others. The righteousness of God is 
the perfection of his dealings with the creatures he 
has made dependent upon him. Righteousness in 
man is the just discharge of those duties which he 
owes to God, and, for the sake of God, to his fellow 
creatures. These relative duties imply affections, by 
which only they can be felt. Thus God is declared 
to be "love," and "love is the fulfilling of the law," 
our Lord having comprised all our duty to God in 



A DIVINE NATURE. 



17 



loving Him with all our hearts, and our duty to our 
neighbour in loving him as ourselves. God is in- 
finitely righteous, not only in the boundless capa- 
city of his love, but in the boundless extent of his 
rule and providence. The resemblance of the soul 
in righteousness to Him, consists in the fulfilment 
of all those duties which God has prescribed to us. 
Perfect in this obedience, man is perfectly righteous 
in his sphere, for, following the guidance of God, 
he will omit nothing which is right, and do nothing 
which is wrong. 

Holiness has respect to God only. In the crea- 
ture, it is conformity to the Divine character, or an 
entire consecration to his will. The holiness of 
God is his infinitely perfect consistency with him- 
self, or the entire harmony which subsists between 
all the divine attributes and all the divine acts. 

We cannot stay to defend this definition, but any 
doubt of its justness will, on due thought, pass 
away. The usual definitions of the divine holiness 
are wrong, as supposing a comparison of God 
with some standard other than himself, an incon- 
sistency not to be tolerated. For, if we call the ho- 
liness of God his rectitude, by wmat rule do we as- 
certain that rectitude? Certainly not the judgment 
of man, or his notion concerning the fitness of 
things. Or, if we call it, as others have done, His 
c 



18 



A DIVINE NATURE. 



consecration to the highest good of the universe, 
how shall we know what the highest good of the 
universe is, unless hy the teachings of God? We 
gain nothing hy such circumlocution. But, when we 
compare the Divine Being with Himself, and know 
that in all the infinite multitude of his thoughts and 
variety of his acts, every thought is so true and 
every act so wise, that there is not one inconsistent 
with another, or inharmonious with the rest, then 
only do we make an approach toward understand- 
ing the holiness of God. 

Man, therefore, cannot be like God, infinitely 
holy, because he is finite ; but, so far as he is con- 
formed to the divine will and example, he is holy as 
God is holy, for there is then the same agreement 
between him and God, that there is between God 
and Himself. 

Thus we see that the divine likeness, by which 
the believer is made "a partaker of the divine na- 
ture," consists of a mind filled with true know- 
ledge, affections rightly bestowed and duly exer- 
cised, and of an entire conformity to the divine 
character, so far as the finite can resemble the in- 
finite. Their knowledge is the same, for that can- 
not be truth in man, which would be error in God ; 
their righteousness is the same, for that cannot be 
right in man, which would be wrong in God; and 



A DIVINE NATURE. 



19 



their holiness is the same, for God cannot approve 
in man what would be inconsistent with Himself. 

How close then is the resemblance of a holy soul 
to his God? So close, that God walked on earth 
in all the duties of man, and God, the Holy Ghost, 
dwells in the soul of every believer, to strengthen 
him for his following of Christ. 

Secondly: Christians are made partakers of 
a divine nature, because they are admitted to 
a blessedness resembling that of god. 

God is infinitely blessed. He is blessed in his 
knowledge, blessed in his righteousness, and blessed 
in his holiness. So far then as the Christian is like 
God in knowledge, righteousness and holiness, will 
he be blessed like God. They will be united in 
blessedness, the one as the ever-blessed Creator 
and Sovereign, the other as the happy creature and 
subject. Their sources of happiness are the same, 
because their characters are the same. As the 
Psalmist says, "I shall be satisfied when I awake 
with thy likeness." When his resemblance to God 
was complete, his blessedness was complete also. 

God is blessed in his knowledge. When we look 
upon the works of God, and consider their mea- 
sureless extent and inexhaustible variety; the glo- 
ries of the heavenly spheres and the beauty of the 



20 



A DIVINE NATURE. 



field-flowers ; the grandeur of the mountain and the 
shadows of the valley; the vastness of ocean and 
the gentle flow of the green-banked river ; the thun- 
dering cataract and the gurgling brook; the curious 
yet ever distinct anatomy of all the tribes of earth, 
and sea and land, with their mysterious instincts 
and strange adaptations ; the subtle elements in their 
manifold changes and combinations ; and, above all, 
the heaving, conscious, desiring, thinking, feeling 
soul within the wonderful temple of the body, we 
adore and admire with delight the wisdom of Him, 
who made all, and rules all, and cares for all. But 
how far surpassing in beauty must all have been, 
when the sun of the first Sabbath shone upon a 
world without a thorn, a blight, a tear, or a crime ! 
With what complacent satisfaction must the Crea- 
tor have looked down upon the effects of his wis- 
dom and power, as he saw that all was very good ! 
If the soul of the poet glows with happiness intense 
as he wreathes his fervid thoughts in words of liv- 
ing music; if the painter is entranced as he gazes 
upon the canvas which gives back to him the grand 
conception he had formed, or the sculptor as he sees 
before him the image, which has been his sleeping and 
waking vision, perfect and pure ; if the orator kindles 
with exultation as the chain of his persuasive argu- 
ment is flung around his breathless audience, and 



A DIVINE NATURE. 



21 



he gives from his own soul the fire which thrills 
through them all at one instant and in one thought; 
if, hetter still, the Christian philanthropist has 
a surpassing rapture, in beholding the achieve- 
ment of some wide and long-nursed, long-laboured 
scheme of benevolence; what must have been the 
blessedness of the Infinite Spirit, contemplating all 
the works of power and beauty which his divine 
thought had planned, and his divine skill had 
wrought ? 

Yet how faint an idea does nature in her morning 
hour afford us, of the delight God has in his divine 
knowledge ! What child of genius and truth is not 
conscious of a beauty within him, which neither 
pen, nor pencil, nor chisel, nor words, can body 
forth! How poor is every joy beside to that which 
he feels in his own high thoughts and pure ima- 
ginings? But oh! when we think of the Divine 
Mind, when " Wisdom was daily with him, rejoicing 
always before him ; before ever the mountains were 
brought forth, and when, as yet, there were no 
depths;" how shall we approach a conception of its 
blessedness, filled with the types of glorious things, 
to which all that have ever yet been, are in number 
but as the small dust that cannot stir the balance; 
the radiant source of light, to which all the fires of 
heaven are a few dim sparks ; the full comprehen- 



22 



A DIVINE NATURE. 



sion of all the purposes whose beginning was in 
eternity, and which eternity alone can complete ! 
If to us, who but feebly creep along the path of 
science, and with an uncertainty which allows de- 
monstration to waver, and sight and touch to doubt 
their sense, the discovery of truth affords a pleasure 
so exquisite, what must be his pleasure who is 
himself Truth; who sees the end with the begin- 
ning, and, from his throne high above all heights, 
beholds the events of one day as of a thousand 
years, and of a thousand years as one day? 

To be a partaker of this blessedness is the be- 
liever invited. "Him to know aright is life eternal," 
and the believer acquaints himself with God. Now 
he knows God only through the dim vail of his 
works and word; in eternity he will know Him as 
he is known. Here he knows God only by his ef- 
fects ; then will he know Him as the cause. He 
will hold communion with the divine thoughts. He 
will enter into the divine mind. He will see God 
as He is. Now he partakes of the blessedness de- 
rived from the divine manifestations; then will he 
enjoy the blessedness of the "divine nature." 

God is blessed in his righteousness. We may 
know something of the happy consciousness which 
attends upon right and kindly actions; the self- 
approval, better than all the acclamations of the 



A DIVINE NATURE. 



23 



crowd, when we have done our duty, and the sweet 
Messing which mercy yields to the giver of good, 
even more than to the receiver. We may form 
some faint conception of the happiness which would 
pervade the spirit of some great king, who should 
retire from his throne to his pillow, with the assu- 
rance that not one of his many subjects could with 
truth complain of his injustice, neglect or partiality, 
but that security was about every dwelling, and 
comfort within every household. What must be 
the blessedness of God, when from the throne of a 
universe he can look upon all the worlds he has 
made, and within the soul of every creature, and 
know that he has forgotten none, and omitted to 
none the due of a dependent; that the eyes of none 
have waited upon him in vain, but that each has re- 
ceived his portion of daily care? 

Justice must have its way upon the transgressor, 
and the Lord has said, "I have no pleasure in the 
death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from 
his way and live;" yet justice must be a delight to 
Him who delights in truth, and would save the soul 
of his creature from following the way of death. 
And then his love and mercy ! What happiness so 
pure, so rich, as the gushing forth of affection to- 
wards those we love? What action so full in its 
own repayment, as a successful compassion for the 



24 



A DIVINE NATURE. 



wretched, or the winning back of a desolate heart 
to hopes of peace? This was the refreshment of 
the Saviour's spirit in his sorrowful pilgrimage; 
for when he was weary and worn, he but stayed 
his steps to cause a lame man to leap as an hart, 
or the tongue of a dumb man to sing, to pour 
light upon a darkened eye, to bid a leper be 
clean, or to give back to some mourner her re- 
cent dead, and he was strong again as though he 
had drunk a cup of life. But what must be the joy 
of God in pouring forth from the infinite fountain 
of his heart streams of affection to every holy and 
happy child? or in sending consolation to bleeding 
and broken bosoms which none but He can bind up 
and heal? 

How great his blessedness is in this exercise 
of love, we may learn from the vast extent of 
his living creation. Why were conscious beings 
made, if God had not desired to have objects whom 
he could love and bless with Himself? Above all, 
why, did he give his only begotten Son to humilia- 
tion and the cross, and, after raising him up to his 
right hand, crown him with all power for the hap- 
piness of all who believe on his name? Why has 
he adorned heaven with such magnificence, and 
filled it with such ravishments of pleasure, that sin- 
ners once lost might dwell with him in joy forever? 



A DIVINE NATURE. 



25 



Is it not because he has a joy in love and mercy far 
above every other blessedness? 

Yet in this blessedness the believer may share. 
God surrounds the Christian's weakness by objects 
of affection, that his heart's tendrils twining around 
them may rise from the dust and aspire toward 
heaven. He has made every name of human love 
sacred, by applying it to Himself. He has appoint- 
ed us almoners of his bounty, spiritual and tempo- 
ral, to the poor, the erring, and the wretched. The 
trials we suffer from sympathy, prepare us for the 
happiness of that world where we shall never be- 
hold a tear or a pang. What must be the joy of 
God our Saviour when the work of redemption is 
complete, every ransomed soul brought home, every 
mortal weakness repaired, every shadow of fear or 
sorrow chased away, and every wish of his ransomed 
church gratified forever? Into that joy He bids 
those enter, who for his sake and in his name have 
done good to those who had need. "Enter the joy 
of thy Lord," he says to the faithful servant; the 
very joy the Master has, his servant shares. 

God is blessed in his holiness. In the eternal 
mind, there is no jarring doubt, no distracting un- 
certainty, no fearful hesitation. All is pure, and 
lucid, and serene. What infinite composure, un- 
ruffled calmness, and boundless self-satisfaction, 

D 



26 



A DIVINE NATURE, 



pervade the spirit of the holy and ever-blessed 
God! Sublime above storm, and shadow, and 
change, the " peace of God passeth all understand- 
ing." 

To the bosom of God the believer will be taken. 
The throne of the Almighty secures the happiness 
of him, who lives after the divine holiness. Pas- 
sion, doubt, fear, sin, agitate him no more. He is 
like God, perfect in himself, through the power of 
God, a partaker of a divine nature ; and the peace 
of God, the very peace of God himself, which pass- 
eth all understanding, shall keep his heart and mind 
forever. This God shadowed forth when he sanc- 
tified the Sabbath of his own rest for the peace of 
holy man in communion with Himself, and the rest 
of his regenerated people shall be complete in the 
eternal rest which remaineth for them; for, says 
the apostle, "He, that hath entered into rest, hath 
ceased from his own works, as God did from his." 
"Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, for 
they rest from their labours, and their works do 
follow them." They are at peace with God in the 
eternal Sabbath. 

Such is some faint explanation of the apostle's 
meaning, when he speaks of Christians becoming, 
through faith in Jesus, "Partakers of the divine 
nature." How noble a dignity does he propose to 



A DIVINE NATURE. 



21 



our ambition ! What exalted felicity to our hopes ! 
What perfect satisfaction to our desires ! Go then, 
unbeliever, to the foot of the cross, and ask that He, 
who purchased by his atonement power to make us 
sons of God, would enstamp anew the image of God 
upon your fallen soul. Go, Christian, close to the 
throne of grace ; there gain strength to follow Jesus, 
the example and accomplisher of your faith. Ful- 
fil ye his joy, that his joy may remain in you, and 
that your joy may be full. 



SERMON II. 



GOOD NEWS FOR THE POOR. 



GOOD NEWS FOR THE POOR. 



Luke vii. 22. To the Poor the Gospel is preached. 

John the Baptist had on several occasions testi- 
fied most clearly that Jesus was the Lamb of God, 
which taketh away the sin of the world ; but now, 
shut up in prison, he is tempted by doubt, or wishes 
to confirm the faith of his disciples, and sends two 
of them to our Lord with the question, " Art thou 
He that should come, or look we for another?" 
The answer of Jesus is given in the words from 
which we have taken our text: " Go your way, and 
tell John what things ye have seen and heard ; how 
that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are 
cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised." 
These physical miracles were an exact fulfilment 
of ancient prophecy respecting the Christ, and a 
divine testimony to the mission of Jesus, "for no 
man could have done the works he did, except God 
had been with him." But the moral proof, neces- 
sary to secure for the Teacher of Galilee the con- 



32 GOOD NEWS FOR THE POOR. 

fidence of our hearts would have heen wanting, 
had not the moral miracle heen added, " To the 
poor the Gospel is preached." This alone de- 
clared it to he a system far ahove the contrivance 
of men, and worthy of the Universal Father. 

Philosophy had virtually shut out from her 
schools all, who from the necessity of labour could 
not give themselves up to study and discussion, or 
whose names would add no lustre to a sect. The 
costly services of heathen mythology received cold- 
ly at their shrines the destitute and the wretched, 
who most needed the sympathy of heaven, while 
the rich and the great subsidized gods and oracles. 
Even under the Jewish ritual, the humble worship- 
per, who could bring to the altar only a pair of tur- 
tle doves or young pigeons, needed strong faith not 
to feel abashed and discouraged as the rich pressed 
forward with the best of flock and herd. But Jesus 
came as a poor man, to preach glad tidings to the 
poor. He does not refuse his truth to the rich, 
because they are rich, nor give pardon to the poor, 
because they are poor; but he passes by the petty 
distinctions upon which men pride themselves, and 
addresses himself, first, to those with the least world- 
ly advantages, that he may show, in a manner not 
to be mistaken, how God, who is no respecter of 
persons, has sent by him messages of mercy to man 



GOOD NEWS FOR THE POOR. 33 

as man, offering love to all who are willing to con- 
fess themselves poor before God, teaching holy 
wisdom to all who become as little children, and 
beating down all, the rich and the poor, the learned 
and the unlearned, the mighty and the weak, to one 
common level, that whosoever will, may rise through 
faith to the dignity, privilege and inheritance of a 
child of God. 

I. The preaching of the Gospel to the poor de- 
monstrates its adaptation to the wants of human 
nature. 

There is no disguising the fact, that in all 
ages and conditions of the world, the poor have 
been looked down upon and made to suffer wrong. 
Classic antiquity did not produce one advocate of 
the poor. They were " the profane and hated vul- 
gar." The Pharisees, who comprised within their 
sect, all the rich, cultivated and fashionable among 
the Jews, except the Sadducean skeptics, pronounced 
the common people " accursed." In modern Europe 
(passing by those dark ages, when a proud chivalry 
considered the peasant and the mechanic, the scum 
of the earth) but little regard is paid to the rights 
of the many; yes, even in that natiqn, the greatest, 
the proudest, and, as some think, the best of them 
all, where the utmost magnificence contrasts close- 
ly with the utmost squalor of wretchedness, where 

E 



34 



GOOD NEWS FOR THE POOR. 



the labourer's bread is stinted that the gorged aris- 
tocrat may secure his rents from foreign competi- 
tion, where invention is racked to discover how 
small a portion of food and comfort w 7 ill suffice to 
keep a pauper's body and soul together, and where 
the splendour of the upper classes is but as the de- 
corated marble of a sepulchre, hiding within cold, 
hard walls corruption and death. Nay, it is true 
of our own land, though the theory of the laws ac- 
knowledges the equality of all, that millions of the 
same human kind with ourselves, whom God made, 
and Christ died for, and the Holy Ghost is ready 
to sanctify for the Christian's heaven, are denied 
the privilege of reading the Book which God com- 
mands to every creature; the necessity of labour 
is deemed by many almost a shame, and ranks in 
society are graduated by differences in honest pur- 
suits; the worst brunt of any pecuniary pressure 
is put upon the hard-working striver for daily 
bread ; the very instinct of pity toward widows and 
orphans has been made the cover, under which 
they have been robbed of the precious savings en- 
trusted by the dead to hands they thought honour- 
able, and laws, strong as steel to the vulgar thief, 
are like cobwebs to the gentlemanly defaulter. 

It is true, that poverty, especially in the happy 
circumstances of this country, is often the result of 



GOOD NEWS FOR THE POOR. 



35 



crime, and for this reason, among others, accompa- 
nied by crime ; but, that this is so universal as to 
furnish a rule of judgment, God himself denies, 
when he declares even to the Jews, whose econo- 
mical system was the very best guard against pau- 
perism, "the poor shall never cease out of the 
land;" and that "the poor are the Lord's heri- 
tage;" which could not be if crime were the only 
cause of poverty and the poor necessarily vicious. 
On the contrary, the circumstances of life, in which 
the Saviour chose to set forth an example of per- 
fect man, together with his saying, "How hard- 
ly shall a rich man enter the kingdom of God!" 
go far to show that the piety most like to his own, 
may be found with even those who have not where 
to lay their head. Sickness, mistakes in manage- 
ment, and imprudence, not greater in their narrow 
sphere than that which often wrecks large fortunes 
of men accounted upright, may bring extreme des- 
titution upon the industrious, temperate and well- 
meaning. 

It is a common thing to declaim against the vices 
of those whom in our pride we call the lower or- 
ders, but true charity should rather wonder that 
they are so few, where virtue has such feeble en- 
couragement from the world, and is beset by such 
strong temptations. It ought to be easy for those, 



36 GOOD NEWS FOR THE POOR. 

whose competence puts them above want, to be 
honest; whose mental culture and social advan- 
tages supply them with higher pleasures than ani- 
mal gratification, to avoid licentiousness ; and whose 
friends are thick around them, to stand firm in in- 
tegrity through the hour of trial. Yet have they 
not always proved themselves free from crime, and, 
could the vail be lifted from the deeds their oppor- 
tunities enable them to conceal, perhaps the account 
of sin in the two classes might not be as unequal as 
many think. But it is far different with those, in 
whose heart want contends against poorly educated 
principle, to whom wealthy lust or ambition offers 
bribes, and who, despised or forgotten by the world, 
have none to cheer them in their self-denial, prac- 
tised amidst toil and necessity, while all stand ready 
to hunt them down for the slightest crime. Cer- 
tain I am, that many of us, who, with comparative 
plenty about us, walk in the pride of our virtue, if 
we were reduced to the trials of the poor, would 
lose much of our boast; and, that in the day when 
the guilt of crime will be graduated by the moral 
circumstances of the transgressor, many a sinner of 
the drawing-room will look as loathsomely as the 
culprit of the penitentiary. 

In a religion which comes from God, the 
Creator of all men, we must expect comfort and 



GOOD NEWS FOE, THE POOR. 



37 



help adapted to the necessities of all; we must see 
the Almighty hand reached down to raise up the 
lowest as well as the high, the most wretched as 
well as the fortunate ; we must find motives to vir- 
tue stronger than man has ever discovered ; we must 
read truths linking the soul to God and his uni- 
verse, yet comprehensible, not only by minds 
trained in study, but by the simple, the child, the 
poor, who have no such talent, cultivation, or time. 
There must be in it a charm to throw sunshine 
upon the dreariest and ruggedest lot. It must be 
as a friend to stand by us and cheer, when all else 
overlook or forsake us, and, in the darkest and 
coldest hour of human suffering, promise an immor- 
tal day of light and satisfaction. Therefore, did 
Jesus at once vindicate the divinity of his religion 
by preaching the Gospel to the poor. Wealth 
could not buy it, rank could not win it, power 
could not compel it; but, when they heard it, the 
slave looked up and was free eternally, the beggar 
by the way-side became rich, the widow knew she 
had a husband and a father for her orphans, the la- 
bourer went cheerful to his toil for the sake of his 
Master in heaven, the lisping child was made wiser 
than the ancients, breaking forth into praise more 
sublime than all the speculations of the schools; 
nor could the rich, and the wise, and the great, 



38 



GOOD NEWS FOR THE POOR. 



share in the blessing, until they had passed through 
the same strait gate, and kneeled at the foot of the 
same cross with the outcast and the despised. This 
is a religion worthy of a God, and such as only God 
could provide. 

II. The Gospel preached to the poor vindicates 
the providence of God toward men. 

The existence of poverty and wretchedness is a 
sore stumbling block to one who is inquiring after 
a God of love and goodness. Were we all misera- 
ble alike, the difficulty would be less, for we might 
then conjecture a common cause for the common 
ruin. But the varieties of human allotment and 
experience are very distressing to mind and heart; 
nay, but for the light of revelation, must seem ca- 
pricious and cruel. We are born into the world 
with the same cravings and sensibilities, yet to one 
is given a strong and healthful frame, while another 
suffers from the cradle to the grave under bodily 
tortures, that make life a weariness and captivity. 
One is lapped in affluence, and trained for a matu- 
rity of honour by the watchful eye and hand of in- 
telligent love ; another, stamped in the same image, 
is cast forth a child of shame and heir of infamy. 
One lolls in easy luxury, with many waiting at his 
beck to serve his artificial wants ; another, perhaps 
every way his superior in mental and moral quali- 



GOOD NEWS FOR THE POOR. 



39 



ties, drudges, a burden-bearer, through the world, 
with scarce a pittance for food and shelter. One 
inherits a throne, another lives and dies a slave. 

Industry, virtue, and a pursuit of knowledge, 
may do something to relieve, and even to prevent 
these inequalities, but not enough. Riches are not 
always a proof of virtue, nor power the reward of 
honourable means, and the best talent is often a 
crippled pensioner upon wealthy and niggard igno- 
rance. Wherefore, then, these distinctions? Are 
we not all alike human, creatures of one God? 

We may be told that there is less difference of 
happiness among men than meets the eye; that 
every lot has its trials and every heart its bitter- 
ness; that luxury has its pains as well as penury 
its wants, and that, however prosperous vice may 
appear, virtue has in its own consciousness a far 
better reward; but such declarations are mocke- 
ries, except as they may be found written by God's 
own hand in the blood of the New Testament. 

Poverty is a bitter thing. There is no reason- 
ing against hunger, and cold, and disease ; against 
the shame of debt and the slavery of dependence. 
The brow may be calm, and the eye patient before 
the world, but "the iron is rusting into the soul," 
and the heart is dark in the sunshine. The strong- 
est mind quails before its shadow, and the best 



40 



GOOD NEWS FOR THE POOR. 



thoughts fall sickened and sad to earth, as the re- 
ality is forced home upon the bleeding sensibilities. 
What, then, must he the trial to those less strong 
by nature or education? Tell the famishing mo- 
ther, as she clasps her famishing child to a bosom 
whose fountain is dried up, both shivering with 
a chill worse than death, that they who live in 
warm houses and fare sumptuously every day, have 
their troubles as well as she, and she would shriek 
out her answer, "O for the crumbs that fall from 
their tables, the poorest garment in their ward- 
robes, to feed and to warm my dying babe!" 

Virtue its own reward? It is so in the Chris- 
tian's heaven, but it is not so on earth, except when 
the hope of heaven antedates its bliss. The human 
heart cannot live alone. It must have sympathy. 
Consciousness of right will not uphold us in dis- 
tress, except there be some one to whom we may 
breathe it, some friendly eye to answer ours, some 
kind voice to say, "Be of good cheer!" Until the 
lonely sufferer knows that there is a God above 
him, and that eternity will compensate for the ap- 
parent injustice of time; until he finds a way of 
access to a Friend almighty to deliver, into whose 
compassionate ear he may pour out all his sorrows ; 
until a response comes to him from the excellent 
glory, "The Lord God shall wipe away all tears 



GOOD NEWS FOR THE POOR. 



41 



from off all faces." Virtue can no more be sus- 
tained by consciousness than a pillar by quick- 
sand, but will fall by its own weight. 

This strength does the Gospel afford. It first 
teaches us that we are all under sin, and that, what- 
ever be the distresses of men here, they are light, tri- 
vial in comparison to the full wages of impenitence, 
when they shall have passed through death to the 
eternal world ; and then, having probed the ulcerous 
evil to the quick, it brings nigh the balm of heal- 
ing. The Man Christ Jesus walks before us, the 
poor, the despised, the rejected of men, stricken, 
smitten of God, and afflicted. What are all our 
sorrows to his sorrow? We see him bow his in- 
nocent head under perjured accusations, and, aban- 
doned by his God, give up the ghost upon the ac- 
cursed tree. Again, we look up and see a hu- 
man form like our own, seated at the right hand of 
God, the adored of angels, the administrator of pro- 
vidence, and the excellent in glory; yet in his hands 
and feet are the prints of nails, as though he had 
been crucified, and beneath his crown of power is a 
scarred circle, as though thorns had been driven 
in upon his brow. Can this be the Babe of the 
manger, the Man of sorrows, the executed Naza- 
rene? Yes, it is He, who, having proved the just 
wrath of God against sin, and expiated it for all 

F 



42 



GOOD NEWS FOR THE POOR. 



who believe, is, therefore, exalted to be a Royal 
Saviour. Now is his word of mercy spoken to 
every sufferer, "I was once a sufferer like thee;" 
to every poor man, "I was poor like thee;" to 
every despised one, "I was despised like thee;" and 
"I was all this, that thou mightest be convinced 
of my sympathy with thine every temptation, and 
power and readiness to raise thee up to my right 
hand glorious as myself, if thou wilt accept my 
grace, drink patiently of my cup, and bear my 
cross. Now it is good for thee to be afflicted. 
The fire is purging the dross from thy gold, and I, 
the Refiner, am watching the process. Only be 
thou faithful unto death, and, for thy light afflictions, 
thou shalt have a far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory. They who live nearest to me in 
tribulation, shall stand nearest to my throne." 

The vindication of providence is complete by the 
preaching of the Gospel to the poor. 

III. It is necessary that a religion, which promises 
redemption from the effects of the curse, should be 
preached to the poor. 

A living divine of the Church of England, whose 
pious eloquence well deserves the fame accorded 
him in both hemispheres, introducing a sermon 
upon a text nearly parallel to our own, declaims 
with great earnestness against the doctrine of a na- 



GOOD NEWS FOR THE POOR. 



43 



tive equality of rights among men, which he consi- 
ders a direct contradiction of the word and provi- 
dence of Him who has said, "The poor shall never 
cease out of the land." "We hold it," says he, 
"to be clear to every student of Scripture, that 
God has ordained successive ranks of human so- 
ciety, and that uniformity of worldly allotment was 
never contemplated by his providence ; and, there- 
fore, we hold that attempts at equalization would 
be tantamount to rebellion against the appoint- 
ments of heaven, and that infidelity must upheave 
the altars of a land ere its inhabitants would ven- 
ture out on such an enterprise."* 

How melancholy to see a strong mind and most 
benevolent heart thus forced, by the tyranny of 
early prejudices and in misguided wresting of the 
truth of God, to the sustaining of opinions at war, 
equally, with the impartial goodness of the Creator 
and the hopes of our race ! If, as assumed by the 
Preacher, and as is doubtless true, the gradations 
of human society are mainly founded upon different 
degrees of poverty and wealth, it is clear from 
Scripture that such distinctions have arisen, not 
from the original allotments of providence, but 
from man's violations of the divine laws. All 
wealth is the product of labour, and it was sin 

* Melville. Provision of God for the Poor. 



44 



GOOD NEWS FOR THE POOR. 



which brought out the "drops of toil upon the face 
of man. But for sin, the necessity of labour 
would never have been felt upon earth, nor the va- 
rious crafts of men found a place in all its happy 
fields. They, whose food grew spontaneously, 
would never have disturbed the soil by the deep- 
wounding plough. Innocence, unblushing in her 
pure beauty, would never have shorn the flock, nor 
robbed the worm, nor toiled at the loom. Neither 
roofs nor walls would have shut out the pure at- 
mosphere ; and commerce could have added no be- 
nefit to those who had no wants, and craved no 
luxuries. There would have been no pride to bar- 
ter bread for ornaments, nor warring ambition to 
forge the spear and sword. No leech's skill would 
have been needed by immortal bodies, nor learned 
counsel to settle disputes where there could be no 
quarrel. God would have been the sole Legislator, 
and his will the only Executive. Some distinc- 
tions there may have been, some stronger though 
all strong, some wiser though all wise; but never 
could there have been those distinctions which now 
arise from poverty and wealth, for, where all had 
enough, none could have been poor, and, where 
none needed service, none would have been ser- 
vants. 

Circumstances, consequent upon the provision 



GOOD NEWS FOR THE POOR. 



45 



of mercy by the Son of God, have in many regards 
greatly alleviated the curse, and turned the neces- 
sity of labour into a blessing; yet the fact remains 
the same, that poverty and riches, with the distinc- 
tions founded upon them, were introduced by sin, 
and, therefore, so far from justifying the belief that 
some classes of men will be perpetually subject to 
others, we should confidently hope, that, as the 
Gospel makes progress in the conversion of men 
from sin, thus removing the causes of degradation 
and the necessity of trial, the inequalities of human 
society will become less and less, until all man- 
kind, adopted into a common sonship and animated 
by one spirit, shall dwell before God as a brother- 
hood sharing a common inheritance. So far, then, 
from believing that the doctrines of equal natural 
rights and the probability through grace of that 
equality becoming actual, are contrary to the word 
and providence of God, I hold that their acknow- 
ledgment, even in theory, is no small step in a re- 
turn to the original peace and happiness God in- 
tended man should enjoy, and a step, which never 
could have been taken, nor even dreamed of, but 
for the revelation of the Gospel which is preached 
to the poor. It is when we see the Son of the 
Highest incarnate as a poor untitled man, that we 
learn how the highest dignity is independent of 



46 



GOOD NEWS FOR THE POOR. 



such accidents as wealth or birth; when we hear 
him preaching to the poor lessons of the vastest 
importance and widest range, that we learn how 
the Great Teacher of all can make man's wisdom 
foolishness, and man's simplicity wisdom ; and, when 
we look forward to the eternal world, at whose 
threshold all the distinctions of this life vanish like 
shadows before the morning, and within whose 
spiritual scenes naught can avail but the holy dig- 
nity of souls restored to the image of the Creator, 
that we learn how perfect is the triumph of re- 
demption over apostacy. 

To teach us all this, Jesus preached his Gospel 
especially to the poor, who, to outward seeming at 
least, have suffered most from the evil of sin, which 
brought the curse upon our world and race. He 
did not, as some falsely pretending to his name, 
have done, attempt to overturn in sudden ruin all 
the institutions existing contrary to his original 
purpose; he preached not to the slave rebellion 
against his master, though he came to set the cap- 
tive free; nor to the subject treason against his 
king, though his only is the right to reign ; nor to 
the destitute an agrarian covetousness of rich men's 
superfluities, though his doctrine was that Provi- 
dence cared equally for all. He preached his Gos- 
pel to the heart, that, delivering the spirit of man 



GOOD NEWS FOR THE POOR. 



47 



from the oppression of sin, subjecting the con- 
science to the rule of God, and inspiring the soul 
with longings after eternal riches, the fountain of 
all our evil might be purified within us ; and that, as 
men become temperate and lowly-minded and un- 
worldly and full of love to Him and to each other, 
the insolence of prosperity might be taken from 
the high, and the ignominy of depression from the 
mean, until every valley being exalted, and every 
mountain brought low, all men should meet on the 
blessed plain of universal happiness and. interchang- 
ing affection. We are not optimists nor dreamers 
about the perfectibility of man, because of any 
faith in human nature itself, or the wisdom of hu- 
man economists and reformers; but our hope is 
in Him who preached his Gospel to the poor, and 
in the power of the Gospel he preached, that the 
earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, 
that every yoke shall be broken, that there shall be 
none to hurt or destroy, and that again the morning 
stars shall sing together, and all the sons of God 
shout for joy, when the Regenerator of our fallen 
world looks down from heaven upon his finished 
work, and says, " Behold, it is very good!" 
Here are lessons for us : 

As sinners. There is no hope for us but in the 
Gospel, and no hope for us in the Gospel, until 



48 GOOD NEWS FOR THE POOR. 

putting away all pride, we cast ourselves before the 
cross of Him who was laid in the manger; and 
stripping ourselves of worldly covetousness, we 
pass through the strait gate and follow Him in 
the narrow way, who loved all and did good to all. 

As patriots. It is from the Gospel alone, that 
the true principles of national freedom can be taken. 
There only the fathers of our country found the 
type of intelligent liberty, and only as we spread 
the Gospel through our land, and by the blessing 
of the Holy Ghost inspire with it the hearts of 
our people, can we hope to confirm our unequalled 
institutions. The Bible, the Bible for every man, 
is the Palladium of our safety. Let the Bible be 
taken from us, and the ark of God is lost. 

As Christians. The Gospel is the grand means 
of philanthropic reform, because it goes at once to 
the heart and strikes at the root of all sin. The 
time and the labour we devote to the lopping off this 
or the other branch of evil, is lost. The vitality of 
sin to produce the fruit of misery remains in the 
trunk. Oh ! that we could unite the scattered ener- 
gies of all God's people in the one work of spread- 
ing the simple Gospel ! Then should we soon hear 
the loud voice of universal humanity saying, Now is 

COME SALVATION AND STRENGTH, AND THE KINGDOM 

of our God and the power of his Christ. Amen. 



SERMON III. 



THE 

HEALING TOUCH OF CHRIST'S GARMENT. 



G 



THE 



HEALING TOUCH OF CHRIST'S GARMENT. 



Matt. ix. 21. If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. 

The story of every cure, which our blessed Lord 
wrought while he was upon earth, has much spi- 
ritual instruction in it ; for He, who was ever ready 
to heal the sick in body, is the willing and almighty 
Saviour of the sin-sick soul. Indeed, it was only 
as the Saviour of the soul that he had power to 
heal the body; because, as death and all that tends 
to death were brought into our world by sin, none 
could take them away but He, whose blood was ac- 
cepted as an atonement for sin, and whose right- 
eousness, having magnified the broken law, justified 
a remission of its penalties. Every instance, there- 
fore, of successful application to Him for relief 
from bodily ill, encourages and directs the penitent 
sinner to apply for the salvation which is in Christ 
Jesus. The narrative from which we have taken 



52 THE HEALING TOUCH 

the text, is especially rich in such encouragement 
and advice. 

One Jairus, a ruler of the Synagogue, whose 
daughter was at the point of death, had just made 
an earnest request of the Master, that he would go 
into his house and lay his hand upon the sufferer, 
asserting his confident "belief that she would then 
be restored. There was a weakness in the faith of 
Jairus, for he seems to have thought it necessary 
that Jesus should go into the chamber of the dying 
or the dead, and lay his hand upon her, in order to 
her restoration. Yet, feeble as it was, our Lord 
answers his trust, and at once arose and went with 
him. On the way, however, he finds an opportunity 
of working a more striking miracle, and of reward- 
ing a stronger faith. Much people, Mark tells us, 
were following him, some few in devout love for 
his person and doctrines, and the many, with per- 
chance an idle and gaping curiosity, to see or to 
hear some new thing. But there was one in that 
crowd, conscious of personal need, and intent upon 
personal benefit. It was a woman who had had an 
issue of blood for twelve years. During her long 
infirmity, she had spared no means in her power to 
obtain her cure. She had applied to many phy- 
sicians, and in submitting to their treatment, suf- 
fered many things of them, until she had spent all 



of Christ's garment. 



53 



that she had; yet so far from being better, she 
rather grew worse. It was a peculiar aggravation 
of her trouble, that it rendered her, according to 
the strictness of the Levitical law, unclean; and 
every thing and every person she touched, unclean 
also. She was thus separated to a loneliness in 
her sorrow. 

Having, no doubt, heard of our Lord's power 
to heal, or seen some of his cures, and now ob- 
served with what readiness he undertook to restore 
the ruler's daughter, she learns hope for herself. 
His must be a power above all human skill, and 
a freeness in mercy which asked for no price in 
return, else she could not have thought of applying 
to him. But how shall her application be made? 
Will he, in the midst of his admiring disciples, and 
on his way to do a kindness to a ruler, turn aside 
to relieve a poor wretch like her? Besides, mo- 
desty forbids her to state her case to him before 
the crowd, and she fears their resentment for min- 
gling among them, and thus defiling them. Most 
probably, too, she thinks the Master himself will 
shrink from her unclean touch. What can she 
do ? He is her last, her only hope, and she 
cannot go away without relief. Ah! what inge- 
nious earnestness a sense of need teaches us? 
" Surely," she says in her heart, "the virtue of 



54 THE HEALING TOUCH 

this blessed Healer is not confined to his hand, his 
word, or even his look. He needs neither to hear 
nor see me apply to him. Yet there must be some 
application, some method of receiving benefit by 
communicating with him. This will I do. I will 
not go before him, nor speak to him in the hearing 
of the crowd, nor will I even touch his holy per- 
son. I will creep behind him, and 'touch but the 
hem of his garment, and I shall be whole.' " Her 
faith prevails ; she touches but the utmost border 
of his garment, and instantly she feels that she is 
healed of the plague. That momentary touch of 
the farthest border of the garment of the One 
mighty to save, does more than her many phy- 
sicians, their many prescriptions, and all the money 
she spent upon both. 

Some commentators say, that in ignorance she 
thought to steal a cure, or that she could obtain the 
blessing unknown to Jesus. But there is no rea- 
son for this, and such an idea was utterly incon- 
sistent with her strong faith in his power. She 
could hardly have doubted that his knowledge was 
as great as his ability to save. Her trembling and 
fear, when our Lord's declaration that virtue had 
gone out of him, made it necessary for her openly 
to avow herself, may be very well otherwise ac- 
counted for. Perhaps she feared that she had done 



of Christ's garment. 



55 



wrong in not asking a more formal leave, or that the 
blessing was too great for her poor desert. She 
may have trembled with fear at the supernatural 
dignity of one so honoured of God, as to be able to 
heal even by the hem of his garment. It is true, 
she told him all the truth, but that was before all 
the people, and rather a public acknowledgment of 
his kindness and her emotions, than informing him 
of what she supposed he was ignorant. Certainly 
there is nothing strange in the agitation of the poor 
woman, on finding herself healed from her long dis- 
ease by such wonderful and divine means. We 
hear no words of censure from her Master's lips, 
and we have no right to pass any. "Daughter, be 
of good comfort : thy faith hath made thee whole, 
go in peace." Gracious words of gracious love! 
"Be of good comfort;" let no fear of having of- 
fended embitter thy joy: thine was an act of faith, 
not of presumption. "Go in peace," in a con- 
sciousness of perfect health, and of thy Master's 
love. Are we presumptuous in believing that those 
words conveyed life to her soul, and that He who 
stayed the plague in her body, delivered her from 
her worst disease, the plague of sin? 

That we may profit by an example which our 
Saviour so highly approved and honoured, let us 
observe what constituted its excellent character. 



56 



THE HEALING TOUCH 



First : Her confidence in Christ. 

Her case, so far as mere human help was concerned, 
was desperate. Her disease was of long standing, 
and daily growing worse. She had sought the aid of 
many physicians in vain, and, even if there were any 
that could help her, she had no money to purchase 
their advice. Yet the very desperateness of the 
case makes her cling yet more closely to her hope 
in him. She believes that he can cure her, and will. 
Her case was peculiar. She had been long defiled, 
was poor and, so far as we are told, friendless. 
There seems not to have been one in all the crowd 
to speak for her, or with her. Yet, though polluted, 
and poor, and alone, she is confident that his mer- 
ciful heart will not turn away from her need, nor let 
her depart unblessed. When was he ever known 
to reject the petition of any, because they were 
poor and helpless? Who ever asked his grace 
in vain? She knew he was mighty to save; of 
that she had abundant proof; and, though all his 
other previous cures had been wrought by his hand 
or his word, she does not believe his power to be 
dependent upon any particular means. She did not 
think, like Jairus, that the Master was confined 
to one way of communicating his virtue. She 
could not go before him, nor speak to him in the 
hearing of the crowd, nor ask him to lay his hands 



of Christ's garment. 



57 



upon one so polluted, nor even think of stopping him 
on his way to a Ruler's house; but she believes his 
power to be such, that if she touch the hem of his 
garment, she shall be well. I know not how faith 
could have been stronger than this. 
Secondly : Her humility. 

We have no instance of great faith, unaccompa- 
nied by great humility. The more we recognise 
of the glorious excellence of the Divine character, 
the more we must feel ourselves vile in the con- 
trast. The more self sinks, faith rises, for faith 
is the dependance of weakness upon strength, igno- 
rance upon wisdom, unworthiness upon righteous- 
ness. Thus it was with this daughter of Israel. 

Her's was a pressing and bitter affliction, and had 
she been like some people, who think that their 
personal grief should be made the griefs of all 
around them, she would have made a great noise 
about her troubles. We should have seen her 
rush with frantic cries and gestures to clasp the 
knees of the Lord, and demand her cure. But she 
is content to remain silent among the crowd, un- 
known to all but Him in whom she trusted. A 
less humble heart than her's, would have vented it- 
self in murmur ings. She would have complained 
that her affliction was too great, and that it was 
cruel to consider her polluted and separate her from 

H 



58 THE HEALING TOUCH 

her friends, for what was not her own fault. But 
we hear no such murmurings from her lips. She 
bows in silent meekness to the hand of God, and 
seeks relief only from the Divine mercy. She was 
willing to be cured by the grace of Jesus in any way 
he chose. Helpless and miserable as she is, she 
never thinks herself of such importance as to need 
a notable miracle for her cure, or that the Saviour 
must strive especially hard to effect it. A single 
unobserved touch of his garment is all that is neces- 
sary, not because she needs no great deliverance, 
but because Jesus is so great a Deliverer. Though 
she must have almost grovelled upon the ground 
among the feet of the crowd, to reach the hem of 
the Master's garment, yet she stoops and gladly 
humbles herself that she may be exalted. Her 
cure is well-gained, so that it be gained at any sa- 
crifice, of pride or ease. I know not which was 
greatest, her humility or her faith. 

Thirdly : Her personal application of the Mas- 
ter's healing influence. 

She knew that he could heal all manner of dis- 
eases, that he had healed them, and was still willing 
to heal them. But it was not enough for her to 
know that he was a mighty Healer. She needed 
that his power should be exerted in her behalf, that 
he should heal her. What personal benefit would it 



of cheist's garment. 



59 



have been to her to know that every one else could 
go unto him and be healed, if her disease remained 
unabated? She is determined, therefore, that he 
shall be her Saviour. 

She knew, that though he was willing to receive 
and bless all who came to him for healing, that he 
could not be expected to do it without her seek- 
ing the grace, or without some proof of her will- 
ingness and desire to receive it from him. In 
other circumstances, she would have knelt before 
him and openly besought his blessing, but, since 
she cannot do that, she determines to touch the 
hem of his garment, which gesture, though slight in 
itself, expressed in the fullest manner her faith and 
anxiety. 

She knew, also, that there must be some mean by 
which the healing influence was to be conveyed to 
her, some method of communication between her 
sick body and her Lord's virtue. Had he touched 
her, at her request, the touch would have healed 
her ; had he spoken to her, his words would have 
healed her ; had he even looked upon her, the look 
would have been sufficient. Therefore she deter- 
mines to touch his garment. Slight as the con- 
nexion was, which a touch of the hem of his gar- 
ment made between her and her Lord, it was ne- 
cessary to her cure, and it was enough. Without 



60 THE HEALING TOUCH 

it or some other method of application, she would 
have had no relief. But she made in faith a per- 
sonal application and appropriation of her Master's 
grace to her own case, and instantly she was made 
whole. 

We are now prepared to see how sinners who 
desire a salvation, must seek for it from Christ. 

1. We must put confidence in him as the Saviour 
of sinners. 

Of this we cannot doubt, when we consider that 
God hath raised him up to glory "a Prince and a 
Saviour, to give repentance and remission of sins." 
It is against God that we have offended, and God is 
the best judge of the sufficiency of any atonement 
offered for our justification. With Christ he has 
declared himself well pleased. The righteousness 
and death of Christ he has accepted, and pro- 
nounced sufficient, and in token of his satisfaction 
with the work of his Son, as the Redeemer of his 
people, he has raised him up from the dead, crowned 
him with glory and honour, given him to be head 
over all things to his church, and promised eternal 
life to all whom he presents by his blessed mediation. 
Who should question the ability of Christ to save, 
when God, whom we have offended, has assured it 
unto him? Who shall condemn when God justifies? 
What impiety, what blasphemy to doubt the suffi- 



of Christ's garment. 



61 



ciency of Christ, when to doubt it is to deny God's 
own holy truth and just decision! No wonder 
that he who helieveth not, is damned, since unbe- 
lief involves such insult and effrontery. 

But if we believe Christ's power to save, how 
can we doubt his willingness, when we remember 
all that the Saviour undertook, performed, and suf- 
fered, that he might win for himself the glorious 
privilege of saving to the uttermost all that come 
unto God by him? Was it not that he might 
seek and save the lost, that he gave himself for us? 
Can he now make void and vain his own mis- 
sion, obedience and death? Oh ! how he must de- 
light to save, when he did so much to make him- 
self a Saviour! To doubt his willingness is to 
make a mockery of his humiliation, his servitude, 
and his cross. 

Nor can we doubt when we remember all the 
gracious offers and promises he has made to poor, 
lost sinners. It was to sinners he came to minister, 
not to the righteous ; and between sinners he makes 
no distinction, if they be only penitent and desirous 
of life. The more we labour and are heavy-laden, 
the more urgent is he that we should go unto him 
for life. Nay, that we might have no doubt of his 
meaning us, each of us, all of us, when he invites 
he says, "Whosoever will, let him come and take 



62 



THE HEALING TOUCH 



of the water of life freely;" and "Him that cometh 
unto me, I will in no wise cast out." That we 
might know his merciful will, he has sent us his 
Holy Scriptures, "written for our learning, that 
we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, 
might have hope." He has sent his ministers as 
ambassadors in his stead, beseeching us "to be re- 
conciled to God." He has instituted his instruc- 
tive sacraments, whose rites exhibit, in the most 
striking and affecting manner, his readiness to save. 
He sends his Holy Spirit to put the truths of his 
Gospel with power home to our hearts. Surely, 
in all this, he cannot have meant to deceive ; to 
awaken hopes only to disappoint them. What 
greater proof can we ask of his being the Saviour 
of sinners, than his own and his Father's word? 

And this especially, when we know that his 
saving grace has been extended already to so many 
lost sinners. Hundreds came to him and were 
saved during his life upon earth, and thousands 
when he had sent his witnessing Spirit at the Pen- 
tecost; and among them Mary Magdalene, and the 
sinner of the city, and the dying thief, and perse- 
cuting Saul of Tarsus, sinners apparently the most 
abandoned, and polluted, and obstinate. What a 
mighty host now swell in a harmony loud as the 
gush of many waters, that song of the redeemed, 



of Christ's garment. 



63 



which the solitary voice of the martyred Abel first 
raised before the throne of God in glory ! Is his 
hand shortened now that it cannot save ? Is his ear 
become heavy that he cannot hear? Has his blood 
lost its power? Can he be baffled by any difficulty 
in your salvation and mine, my fellow-sinner, Paul's 
fellow-sinner, Mary Magdalene's fellow-sinner? No, 
it cannot be. 

"Dear, dying Lamb! thy precious blood, 

Shall never lose its power, 
Till all the ransom'd church of God, 

Be saved to sin no more." 

2. We must have confidence in him as the onhj 
Saviour. 

This poor woman went not to him until she had 
tried many physicians, and found help in none. So 
none are fit to come unto Christ, until they have 
abandoned all hope from any other source. Friends, 
however pious, cannot save us; the church, how- 
ever zealous, cannot save us. Their prayers, upon 
which so many fatally depend, are of no avail, un- 
less Christ put forth his power. They may direct 
and encourage us in going to him, but so long 
as we are out of Christ we are lost. Neither can 
we save ourselves. Every sinner, when unrenewed 
by divine grace, would like to be his own physi- 
cian; and having healed, in a measure at least, 



64 THE HEALING TOUCH 

his own unrighteousness, go to Christ, only to 
complete the cure. But Christ will accept none 
such. If we could have saved ourselves, he would 
never have died to save us. He came to call 
sinners, not the righteous ; to save the lost, not 
those who are in the right way. "When we were 
without strength, Christ died for the ungodly." He 
and he alone can do the work, and to suppose that 
we can do any thing toward our own salvation be- 
fore we go to him, is to prove our ignorance of our 
own condition, and of his office. 

Nor is it enough that we go unto God for sal- 
vation. It is true, Christ is God, and God is in 
Christ, but Christ is also the incarnate Saviour, 
and the only Mediator between God and man. Ac- 
cording to the determinations of God's own justice, 
it was necessary that Christ should die and inter- 
cede, before the sinner could be saved. Out of 
Christ, God is still "a consuming fire;" his law is 
still dishonoured, his wrath unappeased, and man 
must bear the burden of his own guilt. To look 
to God for pardon, and not to look to him 
through Christ, and implore his grace for Christ's 
sake, and hope for justification only through 
Christ's righteousness, is to reject the whole plan 
of the Gospel, and deny the necessity of the atone- 
ment which God ordained in such wisdom, and 



of Christ's garment. 



65 



Christ wrought out by such faithfulness. " No man 
cometh unto the Father, but by him." He who 
keeps not Christ, as his atonement and intercessor, 
ever between him and God, must die without 
Christ. For there is none other name under hea- 
ven by which we can be saved, and no other salva- 
tion can give hope to a truly penitent soul. 

3. We must have confidence in him as a com- 
plete Saviour. 

As we can accomplish no righteousness of our 
own before we come to him, so we must mingle no 
righteousness of our own with his after we have 
come to him. We must take his mercy as this 
poor woman took her cure, without price, wholly 
and freely from his hand. It is true we are to fol- 
low him, and run in the way of his commandments, 
but this we can do only by his divine grace. The 
moment we attempt to go in our own strength, 
we shall stumble and fall. He must not only 
raise us up, but hold us up ; for they who have no 
strength to rise, can have but little strength to 
stand. His grace was as necessary to preserve 
this woman in health, as it was to cure her. 
Christ's work is not a mere washing, it is keeping 
us clean. He must deliver us not only from our 
guilt, but from our corruption. He must be the 
finisher as well as author of our faith. Therefore, 
i 



66 THE HEALING TOUCH 

though we should endeavour after good works, rely- 
ing upon his gracious aid, as the evidence of our 
faith, we must heware how we depend upon them 
as any part of our justifying righteousness, or min- 
gle them with the righteousness of Christ. For 
what merit can we have in what we do only by his 
strength? 

4. We must be humble. 

Notwithstanding God in Christ has done so 
much for us, and is willing to do so much more, 
there is no reason for being lifted up in our own 
conceit. We are still poor, wretched sinners. It 
is of his infinite mercy alone, that he has mercy 
upon us. Therefore, though our approaches unto 
God should be earnest and persevering, we are 
not to demand salvation as a right, but as a free 
gift for Christ's sake, and his alone. We must 
humble ourselves before him while we plead, feel- 
ing all the while that we are the chief of sinners. 
The rich man must be as the poor, and the mighty 
man as the slave. We cannot enter heaven in full 
fashion, nor with plumes waving, and a haughty 
step. How can we have confidence in Christ as 
the Saviour of sinners, the only Saviour, the com- 
plete Saviour, and not feel our own utter worth- 
lessness, and ill desert of any grace God may be- 
stow for his sake? Yet many make here a fatal 



of Christ's garment. 



67 



error. They seem to think that, Christ having 
done all the work, they have a kind of warrant in 
God's sight, and may claim their soul's redemption 
without penitence and contrite shame. Not such 
was the character of this meek woman. We must 
humbly acquiesce in the justice of our condemna- 
tion, though we rejoice that it is taken away by the 
Saviour. "We must make Christ our refuge from 
God's justice, not his supposed harshness and op- 
pression. There must be a deep conviction that 
God would be clear of all undue severity, were he 
yet to sink us to everlasting ruin. Therefore, 
there must be no murmuring under the chastise- 
ments and inward griefs, which he deems necessary 
to make us sensible of our need, but a giving up 
of our whole selves entirely to his will, hoping for 
pardon only through the merits of the Redeemer. 
Until we have this child-like spirit, we can have no 
part with the sons of God, in the Son of God. 
Yet how many seek salvation only from dread of 
God's wrath, hating all the while the strictness of 
that law which makes the wages of sin, death, and 
desiring to be saved, not because they love holi- 
ness, but only because they fear to be damned? 

5. We must gladly accept of salvation, in the 
way God chooses to bestow it. 

To hear some inquiring sinners talk, though 



68 THE HEALING TOUCH 

they profess all the while to believe they are 
unworthy sinners, one would judge that they 
thought it necessary for them to be saved in 
some way peculiarly distinguishing. It is not 
enough for them to hear of Christ's readiness 
to save all sinners who trust in him, and of his 
many recorded promises. They are such great 
sinners, that they cannot believe there is mercy for 
them but from some extraordinary evidence, if not 
a new revelation made expressly for them ; the 
common salvation will not do ; the common Gos- 
pel is not sufficiently clear ; and all this, they flat- 
ter themselves, arises from their deep sense of 
peculiar unworthiness. There cannot be a greater 
mistake. If they were thoroughly humbled and 
felt themselves really sinking, they would grasp 
the promise at once, and cast themselves into the 
arms of an Almighty Saviour. It is nothing but 
pride ; a vain imagination of their importance, which 
leads them to think that the same salvation be- 
lieving sinners rejoice in, will not be sufficient to 
meet their case. Who are they, what are they, that 
they cannot trust God's simple promise, but must be 
assured of heaven in some unusual way? Let them 
be convinced, that, unless they believe the promise 
written in the Book, they will have no other. Unless 
they are saved as all other penitent sinners are saved, 



of Christ's garment. 



69 



they will never be saved at all. A single drop of 
Christ's blood, but a single touch of the hem of 
his garment, is enough to save any soul, however 
guilty, or inveterate in sin. It is not, therefore, a 
sense of sin that prompts such unbelief, but a proud 
distrust of Christ, as though we needed a greater 
Saviour than he. 

6. We must make a personal application of the 
merits of Christ. 

It is not enough that we believe in Christ, as the 
Saviour of sinners in general. We must make the 
faith practical, and rely upon him as our Saviour. 
This is the vital act of faith, without which, indeed, 
it is not faith. For how can I trust in the merits 
of Christ's salvation, without believing in the appli- 
cation of those merits to my own soul? A belief in 
the skill of a physician will not avail me in sick- 
ness, unless I put myself under his care. A con- 
viction of the efficacy of any medicine will be 
vain for my own relief, unless I take it. So must 
the sinner rely upon Christ as his own Saviour; 
not his own exclusively, but his own particularly : 
not as though Christ died for him alone, but as 
having died to save his soul. This is the defini- 
tion which our church gives of true faith: "It is 
not only a certain knowledge, whereby we hold 
for truth all that God has revealed to us in his 



70 THE HEALING TOUCH 

word, but also an assured confidence which the 
Holy Ghost works by the Gospel in my heart, that 
not only to others, but to me also, remission of sins, 
everlasting righteousness and salvation, are freely 
given by God merely of grace, only for the sake of 
Christ's merits."* While we rejoice to believe in 
the sufficiency of Christ to save all who go to him, 
we must go to him personally for ourselves, and rely 
upon him for ourselves. Thus the apostle, in the II. of 
Galatians, says, "He loved me, he gave himself for 
me^ He perceived his interest in Christ, and knew 
that He was the Saviour of his soul ; and Job, in the 
same manner, "I know that my Redeemer liveth." 
There must be, then, a separate transaction between 
each soul that is saved and Christ, as distinctly as 
though there were none saved beside. The publi- 
can's prayer was, "Lord have mercy upon me, a 
sinner !" The faith of the leper was, " If thou wilt, 
thou canst make me clean;" and the penitent ac- 
knowledgment of Thomas, u My Lord and my 
God." Until we are prepared thus to ask, and 
thus to receive, we cannot obtain peace. There 
must be some connexion established between the 
soul and Christ, some union to him, some engraft- 
ing into him. The moment we trust Christ as our 
Saviour, the salvation is ours ; but until we do so, 

* Heidelberg Catechism. VII. Lord's day. 



of christ ? s garment. 



71 



we are guilty of unbelief and doubt, and can receive 
nothing of the Lord. Here is the difficulty with 
many anxious seekers for mercy. They would have 
the change first, and the faith afterwards ; when, in 
truth, faith must precede and work the change. 
So long as they refuse this personal reliance upon 
Christ's word, they remain in their distress; but 
the moment they believe, they see the salvation 
of God. It is the simplicity of the act that stag- 
gers them. They cannot be convinced that all they 
have to do, is to believe, to put forth the hand, to 
touch the hem of the Saviour's robe of righteous- 
ness, and all will be done. Yet just so simple and 
efficacious is personal trust in Christ. O that I 
could persuade you all thus to believe and be saved! 

What encouragement have we here to go to Christ? 
We are guilty indeed, and have nothing to merit 
mercy, but deserve wrath; yet Jesus loves to have 
us come unto him, and so far from chiding us, de- 
clares that such faithful coming saves our souls, 
and secures our peace. We may be obscure and 
dishonoured sinners, but we are not lost in the 
crowd. He knows us, knows our wants, and 
knows our faith. He perceived that virtue had 
gone out of him, the moment this woman touched 
him ; and now upon the throne of his glory, he 
is as conscious of our approach as he was then 



12 THE HEALING TOUCH, &C. 

of her's. Though ten thousand sinners crowd 
around him, he has a sense for all. Blessed Sa- 
viour ! thou hast a fellow-feeling for our humanity, 
and the omniscience of God ! 

Alas ! for those who will not come to him ! They 
despise his grace, they consent to their eternal ruin, 
and they die in their sins with all the guilt of having 
rejected mercy, and all the remorse of having de- 
stroyed themselves. They will not be saved now, 
and in eternity they cannot be. God deliver you 
from such suicidal obduracy, such awful ruin ! 



SERMON IV. 



THE SPIRIT OF THE WORLD, 

AND 

THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 



K 



THE SPIRIT OF THE WORLD, 



&c. 



2 Timothy i. 7. God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but 
of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 

Strange words in such circumstances ! The 
apostle had for a long time been a prisoner at 
Rome for the sake of the Gospel, and was now in 
daily expectation of a cruel death, which, indeed, 
he suffered within a year from the date of this epis- 
tle. He was prepared for it, and exulted in the 
hope of a speedy martyrdom: "I am now," says 
he, "ready to be offered, and the time of my depar- 
ture is at hand. I have fought a good fight ; I have 
finished my course ; I have kept the faith. Hence- 
forth there is laid up for me a crown of righteous- 
ness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall 
give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto 
all them also that love his appearing." As he sees 
his end approaching, the end of his labours on 
earth, and the end of his trials forever, he thinks 
of his "dearly beloved son" Timothy, whom he 



76 THE SPIRIT OF THE WORLD, 

would leave behind him in the duties and "afflic- 
tions of the Gospel." He knew well the fiery 
temptations that awaited the young, ardent Evan- 
gelist; but well did he know also the victory of 
faith over them all; and sends him this letter, the 
last he ever wrote, full of parting counsel and en- 
couragement. The text, therefore, speaks to us 
with all the interest and emphasis of words from 
the lips of a dying friend. 

" God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of 
power, and of love, and of a sound mind." 

Strange language, the world may think, from a 
prisoner under sentence of death, to one sure to 
suffer like calamities ! But the world is never more 
mistaken than when it pretends to estimate the 
spirit of Christianity. Men of the world talk and 
act, as if there were something weak and unmanly 
in the religion of Jesus. They have no objection 
to it in others, and are frank in acknowledging its 
good effect upon society. It does very well for 
women and children, the common people, or those 
less informed; but it suits not the dignity of their 
character, it reaches not their elevation as persons 
of large views and important standing. They can- 
not leave their philosophy, or their politics, or 
their extensive business, to trouble themselves 
about sermons, and Bible societies, and prayers. 



AND THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 77 

I challenge your attention to my text, the words 
of one, whose strength of demonstration has rarely 
been equalled, and whose influence over mankind 
for their good has never been excelled, but by that 
of his divine Master; for I hold myself ready to 
prove, that it is the true Christian alone who lives 
worthily of his immortal being, intellect and heart; 
while men of the world are mean, and weak, and 
unmanly in their desires, purposes, and conduct. 
We have not received "the spirit of fear; but of 
power, and of love, and of a sound mind." 

There is a strong antithesis in the text ; not 
merely between the first clause and the last ; but 
the spirit " of power," the spirit " of love," and the 
spirit "of a sound mind," are severally and succes- 
sively opposed to "the spirit of fear." This, then, 
is the proper order of discussing it. 

First : The spirit of Christianity is not a spirit 
of fear, but a spirit of power. 

Secondly : It is not a spirit of fear, but a spirit 

of LOVE. 

Thirdly : It is not a spirit of fear, but a spirit 

of A SOUND MIND. 

First : The spirit of Christianity is not a spirit 
of fear, but a spirit of power. 

The word rendered fear, is not that which we 



78 THE SPIRIT OF THE WORLD, 

find in Romans viii. 15 (" Ye have not received the 
spirit of bondage again unto fear"), and elsewhere, 
signifying a present emotion of fear, urging to 
flight; but one meaning cowardice, or a weak habit 
of soul, a constant apprehensiveness and dread of 
danger, unfitting a man for the resolute prosecution 
of great designs. 

The spirit of power, on the other hand, is a high 
and well-sustained courage, which gives to him 
who has it, an indomitable energy of purpose, and 
bears him successfully over difficulties otherwise 
fatal. 

The first is the spirit of the world, the last of 
Christianity. 

The spirit of the world is fear. Homer always 
characterizes men as timid, or u danger-fearing 
mortals," using the adjective of the noun in our 
text. It must be so. Man finds himself dependent 
for happiness upon circumstances entirely beyond 
his control, and his best calculated hopes exposed 
to wreck from a thousand contingencies, which he 
can neither foresee nor prevent. If he have not a 
friend in the Supreme Disposer of all events, and 
an assured prospect of a better immortality, fear 
will be constantly present with him. His gods are 
upon earth. Children and friends, riches and 
worldly distinction, are the sources to which he 



AND THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 79 

looks for happiness. Take these away, and what 
has he left? 

Children? Can he guard the bed of his beloved 
ones from the thick flying shafts of the unseen, but 
sure destroyer? Can he look upon the precious 
group around his domestic hearth, when the tolling 
bell, or the heavy tread of a passing funeral, is 
heard without, and not fear? Or, as he sees the 
proofs of human depravity on every side, can he be 
certain that those, whom he rears up with so much 
tender faithfulness, may not live to be the disgrace 
of his declining years, and bring down his gray 
hairs with sorrow to the grave? 

Friends, so pleasant in our brighter hours, so 
necessary to our comfort in the darker, what are 
they? The world's writers are mournfully elo- 
quent upon their aptness to change and fail us at 
the very moment we need them most. "Pointed 
reeds, which have not strength to bear, but sharp- 
ness to stab."* Or if faithful, are they not mortal? 

Riches, which include so much of "the lust of 
the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of 
life;" the provision for our families, the purchase 
of friendship, and the favour of men, are you sure 
of them? Can they always be gained? Or, if 
gained, can they be always kept? Or, if kept, can 

* Richard Allestree. 



80 THE SPIRIT OF THE WORLD, 

they bribe away sorrow from your threshold, or 
sickness from your body, or guilt from your con- 
science, or death from your soul? Has the rich 
man no fear, when the storm rattles against his 
windows, or the cry of fire is in the streets, or sud- 
den changes burst upon the market, and he thinks 
of his absent ships, his well-filled storehouses, and 
out-lying credits ? Or, when a secret voice, more 
startling than thunder, bids him prepare to die, for 
after death is the judgment? 

Worldly distinction, what is it but a fairer mark 
for envious calumny to shoot at? Popular ap- 
plause, what is it but a bubble blown up by the 
foul breath of fools and knaves, and when at its 
greatest bigness, bursting into noisome air? Was 
ever demagogue borne aloft by the rank and sweaty 
palms of the mob, whose voices he begged with ser- 
vile meanness, that did not despise himself? 

Or what is posthumous fame, to which genius, 
disgusted with a present generation, has often 
turned with fond idolatry? — I stood once within 
the tomb of Virgil. Time, or the human despoiler, 
had stripped it of every decoration. The niche 
which had once held the urn which contained his 
ashes was empty. The rank weed and brier waved 
around it and over it. The vine-dresser near, sang 
a song in another dialect, and an inscription, at 



AND THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 81 

whose barbarous Latinity the Mantuan would have 
shuddered, was all that guided the classic pilgrim 
to his doubtful grave, who, living, panted for an 
immortality of fame. What is fame now to him? 
Are the dead conscious of the bay or the laurel 
which crowns their statues? Can the loudest ac- 
clamations call them from their sleep to exult in 
their triumphs ? Spirits of the mighty dead, do ye 
hear us when we praise you? They answer not. 
If in heaven, they are absorbed by its glories ; if in 
hell, their anguish has no relief. What is earth to 
them? 

Yet worthless as this fame is, how few secure it ! 
How many have striven for it, of whom we know 
nothing! And when we consider the materials of 
which history is formed, what reliance can we 
place on its truth or judgment? The voice of party 
which now condemns or praises from hate or inte- 
rest, will be echoed down to following ages, as cor- 
roborated testimony. A cold aristocrat may be 
immortalized as Aristides the Just; an earnest 
champion of popular rights as the turbulent Grac- 
chus. 

If such be the only good of life, (and what world- 
ly man has more?) there must be fear; fear lest 
they may never be ours ; fear lest, being ours, they 
may be losf, and fear of that ever impending stroke 
L 



82 THE SPIRIT OF THE WORLD, 

which will dash us down in death, and force us 
from them into that eternal world, within whose 
awful gates we can carry nothing hut the guilt of 
our sins, if we have not made sure of faith in 
Christ. 

Not such is the spirit of the Christian. He has 
made the love and favour of God the portion of his 
choice. His treasures and his hopes are infinitely 
above earth and beyond time. God the Creator, 
the Disposer of all, is his Father and Friend, by 
faith in Jesus Christ. From Him, as the only 
source, he looks for happiness. He delights in the 
mortal objects of his affections, pours out no scanty 
tide of tenderness to kindred and friends, enjoys 
gratefully the comforts and real pleasures of life, 
and loves to have the confidence and esteem of those 
whose confidence and esteem are worth the having; 
but he does not regard these as original, essential 
good. They are the streams ; God is the fountain, 
and all their faculty to bless is drawn from His 
blessing. If the Christian love them well, he loves 
God more. He neither trusts in them nor relies 
upon them, but in Him and upon Him from whom 
they came, and who, in equal goodness, may take 
them away. Strip him naked of all the world holds 
dear or precious, and you have not touched his true 
wealth. He has yet God in his heart. God the 



AND THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 83 



good, the merciful, the omniscient, the inexhausti- 
ble, is still his. " He dwelleth in the secret place 
of the Most High ; he abideth under the shadow of 
the Almighty." 

Is his spirit made to suffer by the death or unkind- 
ness of those he loves? He turns the more earnest- 
ly to Him who never dies and "sticketh closer than 
a brother;" and "the love of God is shed abroad in 
his heart through the Holy Ghost, which is given 
him." Is he poor? He sets his hopes more firmly 
on things above, where there is treasure laid up for 
him, and, while he remains below, his bread and his 
water is sure. Is he rich? He bows himself to God, 
as " poor and needy," richest in the thought that 
"the Lord thinketh upon him." Is he despised of 
men, like his Master; or has calumny done his 
good name wrong? He has a safe refuge in his 
pardoning and approving God. He has an honour 
through Christ, which the world cannot take from 
him; a lofty consciousness of future vindication, 
which lifts him above its censure and injustice, and 
carries him forward to "that day," when God shall 
crown him with his own hand, and robe him in 
eternal righteousness. He has, indeed, an immor- 
tality, an actual, conscious immortality of reward 
and glory through grace, which he will know and 
feel and luxuriate in ; an immortality death cannot 



84- THE SPIRIT OF THE WORLD, 

mock; an immortality of God's approbation, of 
fame, living fame, among the countless worlds of 
God's holy servants. Where are they, the army 
of martyrs, who soaked the sand of the Roman 
circus with their blood? Who fed the fires of 
Smithfield with their life? Whose bones whitened 
the valleys of Piedmont, the marshes of the Low 
Countries, or the heath-covered hills of Scotland? 
No pious hand gathered their ashes. No monu- 
mental marble records their names and their con- 
stancy. The world has forgotten them. It never 
knew them. But were they unknown? Did they 
perish? Are they forgotten? O for one moment 
of that light which shone upon the dying Stephen, 
and we should see them close around the throne 
of the Lamb that was slain for them, and for whom 
they died, radiant with the beauty of blessedness 
incorruptible, the most noble host of the sons of 
God! 

Fear? It is not the spirit of Christianity. He 
who fears God in the faith of the Gospel, has no 
other fear. "The Lord is his light and salvation, 
whom shall he fear? The Lord is the strength of 
his life, of whom shall he be afraid?" What ener- 
gy of purpose, what indomitable will, what calm 
confidence in the result, must he have, who is 
thus girded about by omnipotence, guided by omnis- 



AND THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 85 

eience, and bound, as it were, by his faith and love 
to the will of Jehovah himself. The annals of the 
world's heroism are poor beside those of Chris- 
tianity. Our martyrology tells us not only of 
strong men, but of feeble women and youths, 
scarcely more than children, going to death with 
hymns of joy, singing till the flame choked their 
voices ; of simple, obscure people, accounted as the 
offscouring of the earth, standing firm in faith 
against the might of empires, conquering as they 
died, and blessing their murderers. Our history 
speaks of those, who, with a more sublime reso- 
lution than that, which marched armies across 
the pinnacled Alps, or turned a prow into un- 
known seas to find an unknown world, have left 
home and friends and civilized life, to carry the 
news of immortality among the most cruel savages 
in the most unfriendly climes. Nay, could we lift 
the vail and see as God sees, we should discover 
in obscurity and poverty, Christian examples of 
endurance, steadfastness, and strength of principle, 
to which 

"Your Koman deaths, as falling on a sword, 
Opening of veins, with poison quenching thirst, 

Who doubting tyranny 

desperately ran 

To death from dread of death, 

Were dead -eyed cowardice and white-cheeked fear." 



86 THE SPIRIT OF THE WORLD, 

Go with rue to yonder narrow lane. There lives 
a poor humble woman, of whom the world knows 
nothing. She has but learning enough to spell out 
God's promises, and she knows his will. She is a 
wife, but (oh! what misery!) a drunkard's wife. 
Brutal in maniac fury, he comes from the hell of 
the tippling shop to make, if he could, his home 
another. Idle himself, he seizes upon and w T astes 
her little earnings; blows, and worse than blows, 
cruel, unholy, shameless words, his only return. 
She is a mother, and gather closely as she will her 
little ones around her, she cannot save them from 
their father's violence, and, worse than violence, 
his blasting tongue and foul example. Yet she 
never murmurs. Her brow is calm as an angel's. 
Her tears flow fastest when she hears the language 
of the Comforter. Her prayer is fuller of thanks- 
giving than mourning, save when she mourns for 
sin. She is meekly patient, resolute in every 
duty, firm against all temptation, and kind of 
speech and act. What gives her this valiant vir- 
tue? The Gospel: she has " not received the spi- 
rit of fear, but the spirit of power," the spirit of 
Christianity. 

Secondly : The spirit of Christianity is not a 
spirit of fear, but a spirit of love. 

We have already said, that fear has a strong con- 



AND THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 87 

trolling influence over worldly men. Even their 
better deeds are often prompted by dread of dis- 
grace; and they are in the same manner often re- 
strained from outrages upon the decorum or peace 
of society. The fear of punishment from the world, 
in some form or other, operates more strongly upon 
the generality of persons, than the hope of its ap- 
probation or rewards. Hence legislators deter from 
vice by the threat of penalties, but rarely (except 
in Xenophon's Utopia) encourage to virtue by pro- 
mises of gain. Fear is the passion by which com- 
munities are held in subjection to laws, and the 
universal conviction seems to have been, that no 
other power was sufficient. It is the master spirit 
of the world. 

Nor is this true, as some would fain think, only 
of the vulgar and uneducated. Every one, who 
seeks his honour from his fellow-men, and makes 
the opinion of the world the breath of his happi- 
ness, is a slave to fear. To him their ridicule is 
torture, their contempt worse than death. He 
obeys the changing will of his many-headed tyrant 
in all things, from the shape of his garment to the 
articles of his creed and the rules of his morality. 
What ties, what affections, what hopes, what prin- 
ciples have not been sacrificed for that which the 
world calls honour ! 



88 THE SPIRIT OF THE WORLD, 

Trace the history of its idolater. His mind may 
be cultivated to a rare pitch of excellent learning, 
and his heart expanded by large views of social in- 
terests. He loves his country, and his country has 
answered his love by committing her higher trusts 
to his care. He has objects yet more dear. He is 
the husband of an affectionate wife, and the father 
of worthy children. He promises to himself many 
years of patriotic usefulness and domestic happi- 
ness. But in an evil hour his duty has led him 
across the path of one, who lives only for ven- 
geance. He is challenged to the field, where there 
is no distinction but in the assassin's skill and the 
bravo's desperation. He knows and he abhors the 
barbarous rule which calls him forth. He thinks 
of his country, its dangers, its necessities, and his 
power to save it. He looks upon his loving house- 
hold, smiling, unconscious of the agonies in his 
soul, which he dares not utter. He sends them to 
sleep with the first falsehood that has ever passed 
his lips. He arranges the scanty fortune, which, 
in another day, may be all they will have to supply 
the loss of his care. And then he thinks of heaven. 
He opens his Bible, but it has no promise for him, 
and he dares not read. He kneels, but he dare not 
pray. How can he pray with murder in his heart? 
The morning dawns upon his night of horror. He 



AND THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 89 

braces himself for the conflict, and seems calm, 
for he is afraid to confess the wretchedness he 
feels. The brutal punctilio is settled, and in ano- 
ther moment he is before an angry God, or lives 
a self-abhorrent and guilty thing, with a " dam- 
ned spot" upon his soul no tears can wash out. 
Why? Because he was a slave of the world's fear; 
a very coward, who dared not do right ; a selfish 
coward, who would sacrifice all he ought to love 
and maintain, rather than bear the taunt of fools ; 
a senseless coward, who rushed upon God's wrath 
to escape such sneers as true valour should des- 
pise. Is not the spirit of the world a spirit of 
fear ! 

Fear marks the spirit of the world toward God. 
The idea of a Supreme Governor has a place in 
every man's mind. All, but the most besotted or 
barbarous, feel that there is a Power above them, 
in whose authority, however stoutly they may seem 
to deny it, they must believe. There are moments, 
when the dread conviction forces itself upon their 
souls and compels them to awe. But what are the 
emotions which such thought of God inspires? 
You have an answer in the cruel rites of heathen 
worship, the slaughtered beast, and even the hu- 
man victim. Those are not the offerings of love, 
but of fearful anxiety to appease the wrath of hea- 

M 



90 THE SPIRIT OF THE WORLD. 

ven. prompted either by a consciousness of guilt in 
the sacrificers. or an apprehension of capricious 
anger in the gods they worship. 

It must not he objected to this, that the rites of 
the Jewish system, or those of much earlier ages 
(from which, doubtless, the notion of vicarious sa- 
crifice in every instance has been derived', prove 
the same thing. They do. The God of the Bible 
is an angry God. a consuming hre to every sinner 
not sprinkled with the blood of atonement. Every 
victim offered acceptably under the Old Testament, 
was the sacrifice of conscious guilt in hope of the 
promised Lamb of God. who would come to take 
away sin by the one offering of Himself. Dread 
and terror are the only emotions which the thought 
of God impresses upon the unchristian soul. 
•"What time he thinks of Him. he is afraid." 

Is it not so ? "Why else do men so dislike to 
retain God in their imaginations ] "Why is the 
thought of God so unwelcome an interruption of 
worldly festivity and pleasure a horror ] from 
which they strive to escape by every avenue of dis- 
sipation or of skepticism ? Why this hissing away 
of religion from the haunts of fashion and gaiety ? 
If men loved God. they would delight to think 
upon Him. to make Him their friend and counsel- 
lor, to choose Him first as the companion of their 



AND THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 91 

happiest hours and highest enjoyments. We do 
not dread the presence of those we love, and seek 
to avoid only those we hate or fear. Wherefore, 
also, the secret conviction, that it is necessary to 
prepare for eternity; yet the postponement of pre- 
paration to the latest possible hour? If men loved 
God, they would serve him now. They propose to 
repent before they die, not from any desire of his 
holy presence, but from dread of hell. They be- 
lieve that there is a God, and tremble. 

Not such is the spirit of a Christian. He fears 
God, but it is in the spirit of adoption, the affec- 
tionate reverence of a child for his heavenly Father. 
Every revelation of God is to him full of love. He 
is a sinner ; but his guilt has been washed away by 
the atoning blood of the Son of God, who for our 
sakes became man, and was obedient until the death 
of the cross, and then rose for us to the right hand 
of the Majesty on high, the Forerunner of his peo- 
ple, and the Head over all things to his church. 
He is an unworthy sinner; but he is clothed upon 
with the perfect righteousness of his divine Saviour, 
as a spotless garment. He is a corrupt sinner, 
without any strength of his own to do well ; but he 
has within his soul the grace of the Holy Ghost, 
sufficient for him, to comfort, strengthen and sus- 
tain him. He turns penitently and humbly to seek 



92 THE SPIRIT OF THE WORLD. 

again the God from whom he has wandered, and 
against whom he has sinned ; and, like a forgiving 
Father, God sees him while yet a great way off, 
meets him with his invitations, encourages him 
with promises, clasps him in the arms of the 
covenant, and makes him welcome as a child and 
heir of heavenly blessedness forever. What hut 
love can flow from a faith, which recognises a love 
so great towards him, the love of the Father, who 
gave his Son; the love of the Son, who gave him- 
self; the love of the Holy Ghost, by whose grace 
he is enabled to believe, repent, obey and hope? 
What must be the effect of such love, but a cheer- 
ful, zealous obedience? You know, I trust, by ex- 
perience, how sweet it is to obey the wish of an 
affectionate and venerated parent, whose every de- 
sire tends to your happiness. You may form some 
idea of the gratitude of one, who has been snatched 
from impending destruction by a generous deli- 
verer ; or of one, raised from the lowest depths of 
infamy and despair to riches and honour, by some 
disinterested benefactor. You may faintly imagine 
these obligations to affectionate service; yet add 
them all together, multiply them a thousand fold, 
and you have scarcely begun to estimate the flood 
of love, which sweeps the Christian away from the 



AND THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 



93 



seductions of sin, and bears him onward to holi- 
ness, " as the love of Christ constraineth him," a love 
deep as the abyss from which he has been saved, 
high as the heaven to which he is raised, and wide 
as the eternity filled for him with all the joys of 
immortality. Oh! greatly do the world mistake, 
when they think it superstitious fear that keeps the 
Christian from idle follies, and calls him aside to 
usefulness and devotion. He has better pleasures 
than the world can give, and joys that the world 
knows nothing of. As the love of God is shed 
abroad in his heart, it drives out of it meaner mo- 
tives and unworthy desires. 

Such trust in God and love for God must pro- 
duce abounding love for his fellow men. God has 
commended them to his affection and service; and, 
as there is no just limit to the gratitude he should 
have toward God, so there should be no limit to 
his kindness in their behalf. As his faith pre- 
vails over his fallen nature, he is lifted above all 
fear of the world, and every passion which mars its 
peace. He should have no pride, for he is a sinner 
saved by grace; no envy, for the world has no 
riches that can rival his own; no jealousy, for the 
quality of his blessedness is such, that all may 
share it and he have none the less ; no revenge, for 



94 THE SPIRIT OF THE WORLD, 

the world can do him no real wrong; no fear of the 
world's disgrace, for his record is on high, and he 
knows in whom he has believed. He has not re- 
ceived the spirit of fear, but the spirit of love. 

Thirdly : The spirit of Christianity is not the 
spirit of fear, but the spirit of a sound mind. 

The spirit of a sound mind signifies that control 
over our judgments and discipline of our hearts, 
which secures the adoption of sound opinions, the 
pursuit of right objects, and the choice of proper 
means. 

There is no need of argument to show that such 
a sound temper of mind is incompatible with fear, 
which necessarily discomposes and embarrasses the 
judgment, and often drives it to frantic excesses. 
Calmness and deliberation are essential to prudence 
and wise foresight. Yet it has been a favourite 
charge of the world against the Christian, that he 
is the victim of a distempered imagination and me- 
lancholy enthusiasm. He is pitied for his strange 
seclusion from many scenes of worldly pleasure, 
and his stranger day-dreams of communion with 
God and anticipations of heaven. 

At this stage of the discourse, I shall not labour 
to refute the calumny, but I ask, what is a sound 
mind? Is it not that which chooses the best good? 
which readily yields the present and fleeting plea- 



AND THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 95 



sure to secure an eternal blessedness? which pre- 
fers the immortal soul to the perishing body? 
which thinks more of the judgment of God than 
the ever varying opinion of men, and of the love of 
God than of all other love besides? Is the man of 
the world, tempted, tempest-tossed and disgusted by 
the uncertainties and disappointments of this life, 
yet with no hope of a better, of as sound a mind as 
he, who finds in religion a charm giving sanctity to 
his joys and a value to his sorrows, calming his 
fears, confirming his courage, strengthening his vir- 
tues, and turning even his infirmities to occasions 
of joy? "Call no man happy until you have seen 
all his life," was a saying of the ancients; so ask 
him who has drained the cup of worldly vanities to 
its dregs, and he will tell you, that in the end it is 
vexation of spirit. Go, man of the world, and mo- 
ralize over the grave with your own Shakspeare. 
Open the tomb of the world's idolater. The deli- 
cate and luxurious body is become a little heap of 
loathsome dust. There, in that hollow skull, was 
the brain which worked in unhallowed thoughts or 
proud ambition. There went forth the avaricious 
or the lustful sight. There the ear drank in the 
voice of music and of praise. There spoke the 
tongue its gay or blasphemous wit — "He was a fel- 
low of infinite mirth, of most excellent imagina- 



96 THE SPIRIT OF THE WORLD, 

tion!" But what is he now? For him the sum- 
mer ended, and the harvest passed, and he was not 
saved. 

The Christian must not be judged by this life. 
He may be, for this life only, of all men, most mise- 
rable; but the hope of heaven is in his soul. He 
has already begun a new and eternal life. Wait 
till you see him calm and patient, expecting the 
messenger to call him home; till he goes down 
thankfully into the valley of the shadow of death; 
till he stands glorified and honoured at the right 
hand of the Judge; till heaven's gates are lifted 
high for his entrance amidst the songs of angels 
and the redeemed; till ages upon ages have rolled 
away, and his soul is expanded with holy know- 
ledge and love, and joy and righteousness, yet then 
scarce past the threshold of his eternal bliss. 
Judge of the Christian, as immortal men should 
judge of immortal men, in the light of eternity, and 
say, if the apostle was not right in his boast 
through grace ; 

"God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of 
pow T er, and of love, and of a sound mind." 

And now, my dear hearer, which shall we choose 
(for we cannot have both), the spirit of the world, 
or the spirit of Christianity? One or the other 
must be our master; fear, keeping us always "sub- 



AND THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 



97 



ject to bondage;" or Christ, setting us free by his 
perfect law of liberty. We choose for eternity. 
Our souls hang upon our decision. We may have 
the world, but we must take hell with it. We may 
have heaven, but only if we have the spirit of Christ 
by faith, which overcometh the world. 



N 



SERMON V. 



THE GOOD SHEPHERD, 

OR THE 

PSALM OF FAITH. 

(first sermon of the year.) 



THE GOOD SHEPHERD, 



The sacred historian, describing the pilgrimage 
of Israel through the wilderness to the promised 
land, tells us, that "the Lord went before them in 
a pillar of a cloud to lead them the way; and by 
night in a pillar of fire to give them light ; to go 
by day and night. He took not away the pillar of 
the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, 
from before the people." (Exod. xiii. 21-22.) A 
most instructive figure of the providence of God 
towards his true Israel, and of the manner in which 
that providence is to be regarded by us ! 

"The Angel of the Covenant," "the Angel of 
the Lord," "the Angel of his Presence," "the 
Shepherd of Israel," (for by each of these signifi- 
cant titles He is known in Scripture, whom Moses, 
as just cited, unhesitatingly calls Jehovah, and 
whom we verily believe to have been the Son of 
God, the Head of his Church in all ages,) was ever 



102 THE GOOD SHEPHERD, 

with his people; but he was with them ever in a 
cloud, veiled, whether in brightness or in shadows, 
from their sight; and, with a memorable exception, 
when the cloud removed and stood between the 
rear of the host and the pursuing Egyptians, or, 
perhaps, another when it rested upon the mount du- 
ring the giving of the Law, he was ever before them. 
They knew by constant experience that they were 
under his care ; the very cloud, which hid him from 
them, was a sure sign of his Presence, and, though 
as it went before them, they could not see through 
it the way they were going, they were always safe 
in following the Lord who had promised to bring 
them to the end. Ever with them, ever shrouded 
from their sight, and ever before them, Jehovah 
was to his people a Guardian, a Mystery, and a 
Guide. Such he is to his people still, present 
though invisible, assuring them of his love by his 
merciful acts, his unfailing word, and his witnessing 
Spirit; thus they are to follow him implicitly and 
without fear, not knowing how he may order their 
lot in this life, but certain that he will bring them 
by the best method to an eternal rest. 

My dear friends, we have begun another year. 
A happy custom calls us to a review of the past, 
and a consideration of the future. At such a time 
the preacher usually exhorts to repentance for sins, 



OR THE PSALM OF FAITH. 



10:3 



and to new purposes of duty. The counsel is wise 
and should be obeyed. The past is unalterable, 
and, however deeply we may regret our unfaithful- 
ness to God, the best lesson we can learn from ex- 
perience, is to provide for the future by an unre- 
served committal of ourselves to God in Christ. 
The young and the giddy may lose all thought of 
days to come in the hilarity of the moment, but 
there are few of graver years and responsibilities, 
who can regard the unknown events before them 
without anxiety. What will the coming months 
bring forth? Amidst the changes and uncertainties 
of the world, will our temporal fortunes be secure, 
and a comfortable plenty crown our household? 
Shall we, notwithstanding our moral infirmities 
and the frequent lapses of others from virtue, be 
preserved from the snares of temptation ? Is there 
no heavy calamity approaching though unseen, 
which, like a sudden thunder storm, will darken 
over our heads, and desolate the scene around us ? 
Will our good name be shielded from "the strife 
of tongues," evil, busy and venomous? May not 
death be about to drag us from opportunities of 
preparation before the judgment seat? These are 
questions of awful meaning, not only with regard 
to ourselves, but to those around whose welfare 
our own is entwined, Who can answer them? 



104 THE GOOD SHEPHERD, 

The Holy Ghost has declared that faith is the 
great instrument hy which the soul purines itself and 
overcomes the world. May not, therefore, a con- 
templation of that serene courage, which faith has 
inspired, he of use in persuading us to a more re- 
ligious practice ? At least, we shall see how strong 
a confidence Christians should have in God, and 
the peace in believing we might enjoy if we sought 
it earnestly. The text I have chosen, is one of 
the fullest and most tender declarations of humble 
faith, recorded for our learning, and a spiritual 
song, which has made more and sweeter melody in 
the hearts of God's children, than, perhaps, any 
other the singer of Israel composed for the re- 
deemed in Zion. May the Divine blessing make it 
profitable to us now! 

PSALM XXXIII. 

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. 

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures ; he leadeth me be- 
side the still waters. 

He restoreth my soul : he leadeth me in the paths of righteous- 
ness for his name's sake. 

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I 
will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff 
they comfort me. 

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine ene- 
mies; thou anointest my head with oil: my cup runneth over. 



OR THE PSALM OF FAITH. 



105 



Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my 
life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. 

The order is clear and easy. The Psalmist, 
first, justifies his entire satisfaction with regard to 
the future, by a brief but conclusive argument: 
"The Lord is my Shepherd" 

He then states the several benefits, which are se- 
cured to him by this divine care ; 

And the last verse, is the inference of triumphant 
hope from the whole : 

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all 
the days of my life ; and I will dwell in the house 
of the Lord forever." 

Here, then, are, 

First : The argument. 

Secondly: The particulars. 

Thirdly: The inference. 

First: The argument. 

The logic is in few words and perfect. "The 
Lord is my Shepherd," therefore, "I shall not want." 

This needs little exposition, but let us mark its 
several steps. 

The name, "Lord;" the office, "Shepherd;" the 
appropriation, u my Shepherd." 

1. "The Lord is my Shepherd." The original 
has Jehovah, the incommunicable name of the only 
o 



106 THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 

true God: who, because he is the Creator, owns 
all things; because he is omnipotent, controls all 
things ; because he is omniscient, directs all things ; 
and because he is holy, just and good, orders all 
things well. The providence of God, therefore, is 
sovereign, universal, infallible, and right. 

2. -'The Lord is my Shepherd.'' Jehovah rules 
over all men. but there are those over whom he 
graciously exercises a peculiar office, which is com- 
pared to a shepherd watching his nock. The flock 
of Jehovah is his people, his true Israel, all who. in 
every age and throughout the world, trust in him 
as the Lord their God, and are saved by his grace. 
Thus Asaph prays in the lxxxth Psalm, " Give 
ear, Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph 
like a flock;"'' and the Shepherd-Jehovah is the 
Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, as we learn 
from the prophets, his own declarations, and the 
testimony of apostles. Isaiah, speaking of the 
Messiah after his incarnation (xl. 11). says, "He 
shall feed his flock like a shepherd; he shall ga- 
ther the lambs with his arm. and carry them in 
his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are 
with young;" and in Ezekiel (xxxiv. 23), the 
Lord, after declaring his purpose of acting as a 
shepherd towards his chosen, says, "I will set up 
one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, 



OR THE PSALM OF FAITH. 



107 



even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he 
shall be their shepherd; (24) and I the Lord will 
be their God, and my servant David a prince among 
them." So our Lord himself (John x. 11 ) declares, 
"I am the good Shepherd, the good Shepherd giv- 
eth his life for the sheep:" (14) "I am the good 
Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of 
mine;" and the apostle, in the Hebrews (xiii. 20), 
calls our "Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the 
sheep;" while the apostle Peter speaks of him (1 
Pet. v. 4), as "the chief Shepherd." When, there- 
fore, as Christians, we read of "the Lord our Shep- 
herd," it is our blessed privilege to know that it is 
the Lord Jesus Christ. 

The title, shepherd, is one of dignity, implying 
authority. For in ancient times, when riches con- 
sisted principally of flocks and herds, the greatest 
princes were shepherds; and, as a shepherd rules 
his flock by superior wisdom and strength, kings 
were called shepherds of the people, because of 
their authority over them, as we often find it in 
Homer, and as the Lord said of Cyrus (Isaiah 
xliii. 28), "He is my shepherd, he shall per- 
form all my pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem, 
thou shalt be built." But at the same time, as 
sheep are naturally foolish and incapable of self- 
government, the Lord Jesus being the Shepherd of 



108 THE GOOD SHEPHERD, 

his people, implies their entire dependence upon his 
wise government, because they are by nature igno- 
rant, blind and perverse. 

Shepherd is a title of proprietorship. He 
watches over his flock, because he has an interest 
in their welfare. They are his wealth, and from 
them he derives profit. Thus our Lord makes a 
distinction between the hireling shepherd and the 
true shepherd, whose the flock is. (John x. 13, 14), 
"The hireling fleeth because he is an hireling, and 
careth not for the sheep. I am the good Shepherd, 
and know my sheep, and am known of mine .... 
(15), and I lay down my life for the sheep." 
The flock of Christ is his own, he has bought them 
with his blood, and redeemed them unto himself, 
that from them, under the providence of his grace, 
he might gain, by their salvation and obedience, re- 
venues of glory in all ages, before men and angels. 

Shepherd is also an affectionate title. The shep- 
herd loves his flock, and all his offices toward them 
imply tenderness, feeding them in good pastures, de- 
fending them from danger, binding up the wounded, 
carrying the lambs in his arms, and gently leading 
the feeble and the gravid. So affectionate is Christ 
to his flock. His office is not to slay, but to pre- 
serve them unto everlasting life. He knows their 
dangers, for he knows their temptations, their ene- 



OR THE PSALM OF FAITH. 



109 



mies, and their infirmities, because he has had ex- 
perience of them all except sin. As he is man like 
us, so is the Shepherd of his church the Lamb of 
God, who once, "as a sheep is dumb before his 
shearers, opened not his mouth," and bowed his 
meek head in death, that he might be "the Lamb 
which was slain.'" Well does the Shepherd of the 
church love his flock, as the purchase of his blood, 
the helpless objects of his care, and his brethren by 
nature and by grace. 

3. "The Lord is my Shepherd." Here is appro- 
priation. Why might the Psalmist, why may the 
Christian, call Jehovah-Jesus his Shepherd? 

Because he believes in his name. The Saviour 
calls to sinners as lost sheep ; he declares that he 
has laid down his life to make them his ; he oners 
them pardon through his blood, and healing through 
his grace. Whoever, therefore, accepts his invita- 
tion, and returns unto him by a true repentance as 
unto "the Shepherd and Bishop of their souls," he 
certainly receives, and to every contrite one that 
calls him, " My Shepherd !" he becomes a Shepherd. 

Because he obeys his Saviour's will. The true 
penitent, who comes to Jesus, acknowledges his 
blindness and folly, puts himself under his Sa- 
viour's rule, and invokes his pastoral care. There- 
fore does the Lord Jesus gladly receive him, as one 



HO THE GOOD SHEPHERD, 

that was lost but is found, and guides him in the 
way he is to go. 

And because he confides himself to his Shep- 
herd's protection; for knowing himself to be weak, 
his enemies mighty, but his Saviour mightier than 
them all, he relies upon His power, His promise, 
and His covenant, safe under His watchful eye, and 
safe only there. 

Thus he is able to say, "The Lord is my Shep- 
herd, I shall not want." 

Secondly: The particulars. 

Under this head we shall briefly consider the 
several benefits, which the believer expects from 
his Shepherd-Jehovah. They are five: Provision; 
Guidance; Comfort; Vindication, and final Glory. 

1. Provision. "He maketh me to lie down in 
green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still wa- 
ters." How delightful a description of repose in 
the midst of plenty! The flock " lies down" in green 
pastures. They are not merely driven along, per- 
mitted only to snatch a mouthful of herbage by the 
way, nor from one little spot of verdure to another, 
as was often the case with flocks in a desert land, 
but the green meadow is their resting place ; they 
eat and rest; and rest to eat again. The waters, 
to whose side the Shepherd leads them, are not the 
foaming, turbid torrents, which in the season of 



OR THE PSALM OF FAITH. Ill 

rains roar along, but soon are dry again. They 
run deeply, quietly and clearly, from perennial 
fountains. 

So with God's believing, obedient, trusting peo- 
ple. Much of this world is not promised them, 
but the good Shepherd careth for them, and their 
" bread and water shall be sure." What the wise 
Shepherd deems best for them they shall have. 
Their souls shall never lack abundance of food. 
The word of God, his doctrines, his precepts, 
and his promises, shall ever be to them as a 
wide, rich, and cheering pasture, within which they 
may repose in satisfaction ; and the grace of God, 
flowing from the rock, Christ, shall be ever abun- 
dant, and the Shepherd shall lead them, when 
athirst, to drink its living waters. They hunger 
and are satisfied. They fear not for the future, be- 
cause there will be ever enough. Grace is sufficient 
for them. 

2. Guidance. " He restoreth my soul : he maketh 
me to walk in the paths of righteousness for his 
name's sake." 

In using the word restore, our translators have 
been very happy; for the original, like the English, 
signifies not only restoration from wandering, but 
also restoration from weakness. The sheep that 
has wandered from the green pastures and the still 



112 THE GOOD SHEPHERD, 

waters, will be faint and exhausted. He not only 
needs to be brought back to the right way, but to 
be strengthened again. Thus does the good Shep- 
herd restore his wandering ones. 

Ah ! my beloved Christians, what is it that we 
fear most? Is it not that we shall backslide from 
righteousness, that we shall be too weak to keep in 
the ways of the Lord? Here is the promise for us. 
Let us keep near to the good Shepherd; and, if we 
are conscious of having wandered, let us call aloud 
again for his help, as a silly sheep, bleating, cries for 
the guardian he has left; and Jesus will not only 
bring us back, but heal all the sickness of our back- 
slidings, and by his own grace make us to walk in 
his ways once more. 

Mark the emphatic reason; "for his name's 
sake," for his regard to his own name as our Sa- 
viour, our Shepherd and Friend. What security 
is here ! He loves to save, for his glory is in sal- 
vation ; and will he not save his people when they 
cry? For his own "name's sake." All things 
work together for his glory, and, if by our faith, 
obedience and trust, we unite our good with his 
glory, all things shall work together for good to us. 
Only let our desire and endeavour be after right- 
eousness, and the name of Jesus secures that we 
shall not fail. 



OR THE PSALM OF FAITH. 



113 



3. Comfort. "Yea, though I walk through the 
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil : 
for thou art with me : thy rod and thy staff they 
comfort me." 

Circumstances of depression and gloom are fre- 
quently represented in Scripture hy a valley; as 
in the lxxxivth Psalm, "the valley of Baca," or of 
tears. "The shadow of death" is the dark fore- 
bodings which precede or threaten evil, as darkness 
comes over the sight of the dying, "the shadow of" 
approaching "death." The Psalmist means, by 
"the valley of the shadow of death," any great trou- 
ble. The flock is passing through a valley dark- 
ened by hanging rocks, threatening from above, 
and making the dangerous foot-track dim, where, if 
left to themselves, they would be full of fears ; but 
the Shepherd has not forsaken them ; he is bring- 
ing them by the gloomy path to richer pastures be- 
yond, and the same staff which upholds himself, he 
gently stretches forth to turn each straggler right 
again, and as they feel its touch, they know that he 
is with them, and are comforted. 

So with the believer. He may, he must pass 
through sore and bitter trials, where he will have 
little light from the smile of God's countenance, 
and his path of duty be shadowed by doubt and 
overhung with fears. But even then, if he be anx- 
P 



114 THE GOOD SHEPHERD, 

ious to obey the will, and trusts only in the promises 
of his Lord, the good Shepherd will not forsake 
him; He, who was once himself " tempted like as 
we are," whose human infirmity was upheld by the 
word and Spirit of God, will be at the pilgrim's 
side, sustaining him by the same word and Spirit, 
and with tender faithfulness guiding him through 
the sorrow to a far more unspeakable and eternal 
glory. The darker hours of a Christian's life try 
his trust in his Master's grace, and prove his Mas- 
ter's faithfulness. Yes, and when he is called to 
go through the dark difficulties of death itself, He, 
who has died but is risen again, will be near him to 
whisper, "I am with thee;" and the Christian will 
fear no evil, for the " staff" which supported his 
Shepherd, when opening the way for His people, 
shall be as the Shepherd's "rod," to " comfort" him 
through to the pleasant rest and perfect day of 
heaven. 

4. Vindication. "Thou preparest a table before 
me in the presence of mine enemies ; thou anoint- 
est my head with oil; my cup runneth over." 

The Psalmist, that he might not strain it, leaves 
the figure, and speaks of himself in person. He 
has told us, before, of his being satisfied with provi- 
sion, and the main thought here is not the prepara- 
tion of a table for him, but its being prepared "in 



OR THE PSALM OF FAITH. 115 

the presence of his enemies." His enemies were 
many, crafty, and full of hate. They would have 
taken his life if they could, and, failing in this, they 
slandered him busily, charging him with wrong he 
never did, and warping his good deeds from their 
right motives. They denied his religion, or yet 
more wickedly foretold that his God would forsake 
him. But the undaunted believer maintains his 
trust that God would vindicate him from all their 
malice, and that, as a princely host receives an ho- 
noured guest, ordering a feast to be spread before 
him, anointing his head with fragrant oil, and fill- 
ing his cup to overflowing with joyous wine, so 
the divine Judge, who knew his heart, would ac- 
knowledge him openly by a distinguishing provi- 
dence. This was true of David in this world, as 
well as in eternity. 

Perhaps the most cutting trial of the Christian, 
next to his inward temptations, is calumny; a tor- 
ture no sincerity may hope to escape, for the Mas- 
ter died under it, and it follows tfcose most who 
most follow Him. Sins he knows he has, and from 
God he asks not justice but mercy; yet, when he 
means best, and by the grace of Christ does best, 
to hear from those he sought to serve, the taunt of 
dishonesty, or bear the pointed scorn of a world to 
which he would fain do good, he needs the same 



116 THE GOOD SHEPHERD, 

Spirit that came from heaven to comfort Christ. 
If, then, he might not look up to God, and know 
that his Advocate is on high, he would be misera- 
ble indeed. But this is the Christian's privilege. 
He waits patiently for God, and God will vindicate 
him. Even the spiritual enemies of his soul shall 
not prevail against him. Though persecuted, he 
shall not be destroyed; though he seem to fall, he 
shall rise again. We have no warrant for believing 
that he will be vindicated openly in this life. Jesus 
was not, and many a martyr to lying hate has been 
driven to a grave, which will be infamous until the 
morning of the resurrection, when the judgment 
shall illustrate it with glory. Yet his " table shall be 
prepared before" him. His enemies cannot rob him 
of the sweet provisions of God's word; the grace of 
Christ's love and sympathy shall be poured upon 
his drooping head, and his heart, like a cup running 
over with grateful libations, shall be full of joy from 
the presence of his Lord. But oh! how glorious will 
be his triumphant name, when, before all men and 
all angels, God shall lead him forth, radiant with 
his Saviour's image, as one whom for Christ's sake 
He "delighteth to honour!" If he must wait for 
his vindication until then, will it not be worth wait- 
ing for? The very hope of it is as a feast prepared 
before him, as precious oil upon his head, and 



OR THE PSALM OF FAITH. 



117 



as a cup running over with the wine of the king- 
dom. 

5. Glory. This is also found under our last head, 
which may well be brief because so rich that no 
human skill can enlarge it. 

Thirdly : The Inference : 

" Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all 
the days of my life : and I will dwell in the house 
of the Lord forever." 

His inference from all that he has said, is strong 
and not to be shaken, that all shall be well with 
him for time and eternity, " all the days of his life" 
and " forever," because of the Lord's goodness, the 
Lord's mercy, and the Lord's ordinances (house). 

1. Because of the Lord's goodness. The Lord 
is good, and delights in goodness. Therefore does 
the believer know, that, however dark and myste- 
rious for a time the ways of providence may be, they 
will all be right. This, indeed, would be no comfort 
to him as a sinner, for the ways of right were fatal 
to his happiness could he not also say, 

2. Because of the Lord's mercy. He deserves 
nothing, but God for Christ's sake has pardoned 
him all his sins, and promises to withhold no good 
thing from him; in proof of which, He has given 
him Christ as his Saviour, his Shepherd, and his 
Judge. He has the earnest in his daily comforts, 



118 THE GOOD SHEPHERD, 

his strength in trial, and his heaven-reaching hopes. 
He will have mercy ; though mercy does not forbid 
him trial, because trial is the best mercy, as the fire 
which purifies the gold; and his trials do not make 
him murmur, but obey the better, cling closer to 
Christ, and hope the more. Yet this is not the 
hope of a sluggard or a careless soul. It is 

3. Because of God's ordinances. " I will dwell 
in the house of the Lord forever." This includes 
a resolve on his part. He hopes for goodness 
and mercy, because he "will dwell in the house 
of the Lord forever." David was often driven 
far from the temple and made to thirst for its 
advantages of worship, but, wherever he went, 
he carried the spirit of the worshipper with him. 
The Christian, though he does and should desire 
the privileges of the sanctuary, may worship God 
in Christ, may find the spiritual house of the Lord 
every where. It is in the means of grace God is 
found upon earth : in his word, the humble prayer, 
the communion of saints, the imitation of Jesus by 
religious and charitable acts, and, where they can 
be enjoyed, the preaching of the word and the sa- 
craments, all testifying God's delight in the salva- 
tion of our souls, and all pointing the believer to the 
temple above, where the type shall be made perfect 
and lost in the reality. The Christian hopes that 



OR THE PSALM OF FAITH. 



119 



" goodness and mercy shall follow him all the days of 
his life," and that his life here shall he exchanged 
for a better life above, because he purposes to be 
faithful in the house of the Lord, by an open avow- 
al of Christ, by a diligent growth in grace, and by 
a constant reference to eternity. 

Shall I attempt to describe the glory which shall 
follow? Like the spies who went into Canaan 
before the tribes, I have shown you, and I trust 
you have tasted some of the clustering fruits which 
Christian hope may gather from the field of hea- 
ven. What will the full vintage be ? If these be 
the earnests, what is the reward? 

Christian, such is the courageous spirit which 
believers have had in Christ and his providence. If 
we cannot attain unto it, it is because of unbelief, 
impenitence or indifference. How can we trust 
Christ for eternity, if we cannot trust him for time? 
How can we desire heaven, when we find not God 
on earth? How can we hope that God will bless 
us, if we follow him not as our "good Shepherd?" 

Alas for those, who wander from Christ as silly, 
lost sheep ! They have no shepherd to feed them, 
to guide them, to comfort them, or to defend them. 
They will not follow Jesus, and they live without 
God to die without hope. Die without hope ! How 



120 THE GOOD SHEPHERD, &C. 

fearful a doom! Oh! Eternity, eternity, eternity! 
the undying worm, the unquenchable flame ! the 
eternal remorse of the soul that hath destroyed 
itself! the wrath of the Lamb, love turned to an- 
ger, pity to contempt, mercy to vengeance ! 

Come, my people, let us all return to the Shep- 
herd and Bishop of our souls ! Let us pray to be 
received into his flock, and gathered at last into his 
heavenly fold. 



SERMON VI. 



FAITH, OUR BEST RE AS OX. 



Q 



FAITH, OUR BEST REASON. 



Job xxvi. 14. Lo, these are parts of his ways; but how little a 
portion is heard of him 1 

An ancient king (Hiero of Syracuse) asked a phi- 
losopher (Simonides) to tell him, what God is, and 
how he exists. The wise man begged a day to con- 
sider of it, and, when that was past, two more, and 
then four, until, having often thus doubled the time, 
the king, in surprise, demanded the reason of such 
delay; " Because," said he, "the more I meditate 
upon God, the more mysterious does he appear to 
me."* So it is, my brethren, with every devout 
student of the Holy Scriptures; for, although God 
has revealed as much of his nature and will as is 
sufficient to teach us how we ought to love, wor- 
ship, and serve him, there must be mysteries in the 
divine being and counsels, which it is impossible 
for us to comprehend, and, therefore, profane for 



* Cicero de Nat. Deor. L: I. 22. 



124 FAITH, OUR BEST REASON. 

us to inquire into. To know God as he has made 
himself known, is to know that he is infinitely be- 
yond the compass of our knowledge; and, as his 
perfections are unfathomable, his thoughts are 
above our thoughts, and his ways above our ways. 
This those, who have been best taught of God, have 
most reverently confessed : " Clouds and darkness 
are round about him," saj-s the Psalmist (xcvii. 2); 
and in another place (cxxxix. 6), while meditating 
upon the divine attributes, " Such knowledge is too 
wonderful for me, it is high, I cannot attain unto 
it." The apostle Paul, writing to the evangelist 
Timothy (1 Tim. vi. 15, 16), humbles himself in a 
doxology unto Him, " Who is the blessed and only 
Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; 
who only hath immortality, dwelling in light which 
no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen 
or can see ; to whom be honour and power everlast- 
ing. Amen." Even the sinless Seraphim, who. 
from the first moment of their heavenly existence, 
have been rapt students of Jehovah and his glad 
servants, were seen by Isaiah in his vision (Isaiah 
vi. 1, 2, 3), covering their faces and their feet with 
their wings, as if unable to endure and unworthy to 
appear before the glorious grandeur of his throne, 
while "one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, 
holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of 



FAITH, OUR BEST REASON. 125 

his glory;" and the apostle James declares that the 
devils, who, because they are fallen angels and crea- 
tures of great intellectual energy, know much of the 
glory of God, tremble at the thought of his awful 
Majesty (James ii. 19). When, therefore, such 
weak and sinful creatures, as we are, attempt the 
study of religious truth, it were most irrational for 
us to expect that the infinite God will be brought 
within the grasp of our reason, and all the myste- 
ries of his Being and Providence levelled to what 
is termed common sense. 

Yet is this mistake made, in a greater or less de- 
gree, by every inquirer after religion ; his curiosity 
being not so much to know what God has declared 
to be truth, but why it is truth, and how it is 
truth. For this reason the divine Master insists, 
that they, who would enter the kingdom of God, 
should become as little children, willing to receive 
the doctrine of God as truth, simply because it 
comes from the lips of our heavenly Father, whom 
we venerate, trust and love ; and the great duty of 
the Gospel is faith, because the great part of Chris- 
tianity lies in following not so much that which we 
discover to be truth by our own understandings, as 
that which we believe to be truth on the testimony 
of God. So far from its being rational, as some 
proudly think, to reject all mysteries in religion, it 



126 FAITH, OUR BEST REASON. 

were most irrational to receive any religion as di- 
vine, which, does not contain mysteries. Reason 
itself establishes the fact, that man, the finite, can- 
not comprehend God, the infinite ; and that beyond 
all God may condescend to reveal, there must be 
mysteries in the divine thoughts and ways immea- 
surably above our powers of perception and intelli- 
gence. 

For consider, my brethren, 

All that we know of God has been taught us by 
God himself. 

There is, I am aware, a theory that the idea of 
God is born with the soul of man; a theory which 
might be readily refuted from reason, experience 
and religion ; but none have carried it so far as to 
assert, that such an innate notion is sufficient with- 
out the farther manifestation of the divine perfec- 
tions in divine works. God is man's Teacher as he 
is man's Creator; and all true knowledge comes 
from Him alone. Yet, with all the advantage of 
such teaching, what feeble powers do we bring to 
the study, and how short a time have we been en- 
gaged in it ! It is but yesterday that we began to 
know any thing, and, since then, how little serious 
attention have we given to inquiries after God? 
Are we, at the very outset of our learning, to know 
all? 



FAITH, OUR BEST REASON. 127 

In any branch of science, the progress of the stu- 
dent is slow, and he must be indeed ignorant and 
vain, who, when he is endeavouring to master the 
first few axioms and definitions which lie at the be- 
ginning, will assume to know all the combinations 
they are capable of, and the far results deduci- 
ble from them. Men of comparatively gigantic 
intellect and intense application, spend their whole 
lives in some particular scientific pursuit, and, when 
sinking into the grave, readily confess that the 
more they have learned, the more they see is to be 
known. " Art is long, life is short," has been the 
lament of the philosopher in all ages; but were ten 
lives added to his time for research, he would feel 
the need of an hundred more, and, even at the end 
of them, the result of all his investigations would 
be a knowledge of some few facts and laws, the 
reasons of which are hidden in the mind of Him 
whose will is the only efficient cause. If, then, the 
progress of man's acquaintance with but a very 
small part of God's works be so slow, and, at 
the most, so imperfect, how can we expect, after 
such brief study, to understand the thoughts and 
ways of the Author and Preserver of all ! Yet men, 
who will modestly acknowledge their ignorance of 
nature's mysteries, prattle without hesitation about 
the mysteries of God. The physiologist, aided by 



128 



FAITH, OUR BEST REASON. 



observations made through centuries, is still puz- 
zled by a thousand secrets in his animal frame, 
cannot point out the subtle link which makes one 
man of soul and body, nor tell you what he means 
by life. Metaphysicians, after thousands of volumes 
have been written on the human mind, are still at 
war respecting the first principles of their philoso- 
phy. Shall man, then, dare to determine what is 
impossible in the nature, or contradictory in the 
ways of God, beyond what God has made known 
of himself? 

Your human brother is by your side. He is like 
you in form and other perceptible accidents. Can 
you look into his mind and know his thoughts? 
Can you read the purposes of his heart, or foresee 
the effects of moral causes upon his conduct? How 
then can you penetrate to the reasons of the Divine 
will? You were once a child lisping your lesson 
at your mother's knee, but how far beyond the con- 
ceptions of that child is the various knowledge, 
which you have acquired during jour following life ! 
What would then have been to you senseless jar- 
gon, is now demonstrable truth; what now is utter 
folly, was then self-evident certainty. Yet what 
is the distance between the child and the man, 
compared to that between man and his Teacher, 
God? 



FAITH, OUR BEST REASON. 129 

Consider again, my brethren, 

Tbe essential difference of the nature of God 
from our own. 

Because God is a spirit and the soul of man is 
a spirit, it does not follow, as many rashly infer, 
that they are of the same essence. Such a mis- 
take is the proud and most dangerous error of 
the Platonists and their Transcendental followers, 
who would consider the soul of man not a crea- 
ture of God, but an emanation from him, and, 
therefore, part of God; an opinion fraught with 
the monstrous consequence of making the divine 
spirit subject to the pollutions of human sin. There 
are various kinds and gradations of material being, 
so there may be and are of spiritual being, with 
methods of perception and processes of thought ra- 
dically diverse from each other. God alone, who 
created, can look within and understand these se- 
veral orders. 

The dog, who feeds upon the fragments of your 
table, and is attached to you with a devoted fidelity 
rarely equalled by human friendship, thinks, feels, 
is ashamed, or angry, or glad. There is a spirit in 
the beast. But to him you are as a god, and to 
you he is a mystery. You cannot look into his 
spirit, and discern the methods by which he arrives 
at evident conclusions. Far less can he ascend to 

R 



130 FAITH, OUR BEST REASON. 

the level of your reasoning, or comprehend the 
methods of your thought. 

We have five avenues, by which the mind within 
us goes out in perception. There may be, in some 
of the countless worlds of God's universe, rational 
beings with bodily senses greater in number. Can 
you form the faintest notion of the ideas, which they 
receive from those means of perception in which 
they exceed us? No more than the born blind can 
understand colour, or the deaf mute sound. The 
angels, whose spiritual natures were never intended 
to be encased in material bodies, as ours are, derive 
their knowledge without the intervention of senses. 
They study the works of God, they do the will of 
God, they learn of God; but how? Can you tell? 
Can you even guess at the process of thought in 
an angelic mind ? Must they not know truths now 
utterly incomprehensible by us? May not that, 
which is inscrutable mystery to us, be to them 
clear, harmonious reason? 

If, then, we cannot understand God's spiritual 
creatures, shall we ask to understand God? God 
is eternal. What is eternity? You answer, That 
which is without beginning and without end. But 
can you comprehend this? The negative terms of 
your definition show that you do not. You know 
what eternity is not, but you know not what it is. 



FAITH, OUR BEST REASON. 131 

With God " one day is as a thousand years, and a 
thousand years as one day." Can you understand 
how that can be ? God is omnipresent, encompass- 
ing, pervading, exceeding all things, at the same 
instant and always. Can you comprehend this? 
God is omniscient; by a single act of his mind, (if 
it be not profane to venture even such an expres- 
sion,) he knows all' things in the present, all things 
in infinite space, all things in the eternal past, all 
things in the eternal future. Can you comprehend 
this ? How, then, do you dare to challenge the mys- 
teries of his being, who exists without cause, with- 
out bound, every where and " every when"? How 
dare you challenge the wisdom of His ways, who 
knows all things at once, without effort, without 
succession, without error 1 Nay, my brethren, let 
us humble ourselves in the dust, as we hear Jehovah 
speaking to us through his holy prophet: 

"My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are 
your ways my ways, saith the Lord. 

"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, 
so are my ways higher than your ways, and my 
thoughts than your thoughts." 

Let us learn from these vast truths, 
1. To adore God. 

This is the highest effort of reason, and the best 



132 FAITH, OUR BEST REASON. 

discipline of the soul. It is the constant employ- 
ment of the blessed in heaven, and the nearest ap- 
proach to heaven the Christian can make on earth. 
So long as We confine our thoughts to things be- 
neath us and around us. we fancy ourselves to be 
beings of no small power and dignity. While we 
compare ourselves with our fellow-men, and mea- 
sure ourselves by them, we find many reasons for 
pride and self-sufficiency. He is a miserable crea- 
ture, who does not excel some other man in some 
thing. But if we bring such a temper to religious 
inquiry, we shall be most presumptuous and cap- 
tious. TTe shall cavil, and dispute, and quibble about 
divine truths, as we do with our fellow-sinners 
about human affairs. Therefore, God commands 
us to adore him. For, as no man can look up to 
heaven and not have some feeling of littleness, no 
one can look up to God and consider his infinite, 
holy and glorious attributes, without feeling his 
own unworthiness and meanness. How utterly 
contemptible do the distinctions of rank, or riches, 
or wisdom, that obtain among men, appear, when 
compared with the sublimity of God? How poor 
are the utmost efforts of human mind beside the in- 
finite grandeur of His thought ! To say of a man, 
"Behold, he prayeth!" is to promise of him every 
Christian grace; not only because God answers 



FAITH, OUR BEST REASON. 133 

prayer, but because the very act of worship hum- 
bles, purifies, and, therefore, exalts and restores his 
soul to a healthful balance, by filling him with 
thoughts of God. Especially is this true with re- 
gard to doubts respecting the mysteries of religious 
truth. Our doubts always arise from love of sin 
or pride of reason. Mere reasoning never set 
right a single doubter, because the devil in our 
hearts is always ready with a sophism or a cavil in 
answer to the best argument. Reason cannot grasp 
the infinite, or discern the spiritual. But, when we 
adore God, reason becomes faith. 

2. To receive all the truth of God's holy word. 

There he has revealed the very truths which we 
ought to know. He has adapted them, and the 
language in which they are conveyed, to our capa- 
cities, our necessities, and our true ends of being. 
He has taught us mysteries, because without mys- 
teries we could know nothing of Him, or of our own 
future ; but those mysteries, when they show us 
our ignorance and weakness, teach us the good 
lessons of humility, dependence and faith. Nor is 
there a mystery of doctrine which is not necessary 
to give authority to precept and security to pro- 
mise. To a faithful Christian the mysteries, at 
which other men most cavil, are the most precious 
portions of our creed. 



134 FAITH, OUR BEST REASON. 

3. To receive no truth as religious, which is not 
written in the Scriptures. 

All the heresies, errors and disputes, which 
have disturbed the Christian church, have arisen 
either from the attempts of men to explain the mys- 
teries of religion farther than the Scriptures have 
explained them, or to graft upon the revealed sys- 
tem some fond notion of their own. It is a duty of 
faith to receive simply what God has said. He has 
explained mysteries so far as we are capable of un- 
derstanding them, and as they are good for us, but 
no farther. It is presumption in us to go beyond 
his teaching, and the attempt will always bring its 
own punishment. 

This is true, also, of morality. God, who knows 
the end with the beginning, has ordained precisely 
the rules, and all the rules, for our Christian con- 
duct. All super-scriptural inventions in morals 
will certainly, sooner or later, work mischief. The 
wisdom of God is better than our judgment, and, 
however promising any human scheme may seem, 
to entertain it is to doubt the sufficiency of the 
Scriptures. 

So is it true of measures or forms in religion. 
God has appointed the means, and the only means, 
by which he will have his cause advanced. We are 
but his instruments, and, therefore, have no judg- 



FAITH, OUR BEST REASON. 135 

ment in the matter. The church, immediately after 
the apostolical age, was full of such unauthorized 
inventions, borrowed from Jewish habits, heathen 
superstitions, and heathen philosophy, which smoth- 
ered her strength and spirituality until the Refor- 
mation, when the true reformers leaped over all 
the folly and mummery of patristical authority, to 
the simple word of God and the example of the 
apostles. Perhaps the time is not far distant when 
a second Reformation, which is greatly needed to 
burn the ill weeds, that have again sprung up from 
the seed of those ancient tares, may be granted to 
us. God hasten it in his time ! Let us cling, my 
brethren, to the Scriptures alone. We need no 
other book to preserve the church from falling 
away. If we did, God would have given it. 

4. To rely confidently upon God in Christ for 
our souls' salvation. 

" Great is the mystery of godliness, God manifest 
in the flesh !" Great the mystery of the incarnation ! 
Great the mystery of the atonement! Great the 
mystery of sanctification by the Spirit ! Yet it is 
the very mystery that we need. We could not go 
unto the divine Father, but through a divine Sa- 
viour, by a divine Sanctifier. It is God the Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost, who undertakes the salva- 
tion of every penitent and believing souL There 



136 FAITH, OUR BEST REASON. 

must be mysteries in the divine work. Therefore 
let us trust where we cannot see, and adore when 
we cannot comprehend. For, though high as hea- 
ven above the earth, are the ways of God above our 
ways, and his thoughts above our thoughts, yet are 
those ways mercy, and those thoughts love, toward 
all who rely upon the name of his Son, Jesus 
Christ. It is our joy and our strength to believe 
that our salvation is in his hands, and not in our 
own. 



SERMON VII. 



HOW TO USE THE WORLD 

AS 

NOT ABUSING IT. 



HOW TO USE THE WORLD, 

&e. 



1 Cor. vii. 31. ... They that use this world as not abusing it. 

The world is to be used, but not abused. Its 
abuse is forbidden ; its use is required. The text 
is against two opposite parties, into which men, 
except a very few clear-headed Christians, are di- 
vided : the one shrinking from the world so as to 
desert the duties of life, the other pursuing the 
world so as to neglect the duties of religion. 
Either course is sin. 

The duties of life and the duties of religion 
are inseparable. Obedience to God is the end 
of piety; and the law of God commands us to 
love our neighbour as ourselves. The strength 
of faith is proved by the outworking of social 
virtue; the exercise of social virtue is necessary 
to strength of faith. If, in one parable, our Di- 
vine Master condemned the servant who abused 
his lord's goods by a criminal self-indulgence, for- 
getting his responsibility; in another, he pro- 
nounces that servant wicked, who put the talent 



140 HOW TO USE THE WORLD 

entrusted to him uselessly away, dreading his re- 
sponsibility. Jesus, our Example, was "holy, 
harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners," 
yet was ever among sinners doing good; and wis- 
dom from the Father of lights sanctifies the be- 
liever's soul, that, in his following of Jesus, he 
may let his light so shine before men, as to excite 
their grateful adoration of its supreme Source. If 
duty has its difficulties, they are not comparable to 
its rewards; and, since it is surrounded by temp- 
tations, to be faithful, we must overcome them. 
Were there no conflict, there would be no triumph ; 
and he, who, like a good soldier, endures the temp- 
tations for the sake of the duty, shall receive the 
crown of life ; not the coward, who abandons the 
duty to escape the temptations. " Every creature 
of God is good," writes the apostle to Timothy, 
" and nothing to be refused, if it be received with 
thanksgiving;" but how can we receive thankfully 
the pleasant gifts of God, with which, to solace our 
trials, he has embellished the world, if we consider 
every thing in it polluted, and adopt the profane creed 
of those ascetics, denounced by the apostle, (Col. ii. 
20, 22) as pragmatical, self-righteous hypocrites, who 
say, "Touch not; taste not; handle not." Surely, 
contentment, so necessary to a Christian temper, has 
some reference to this life; and, if even that, which, 



AS NOT ABUSING IT. 141 

because of its liableness to abuse, is called " the 
mammon of unrighteousness," can be made an ever- 
lasting friend, there is nothing permitted to affect 
us here, which we cannot make an occasion of pro- 
fit. The serpent may lie hidden beneath the mea- 
dow flowers, or within the faggot on the hearth ; 
but for this reason, shall we never gather the in- 
cense-cups of nature, or warm our hands at the 
flame? Rather let us bless God for his beautiful 
bounty and genial kindnesses, trusting his grace 
that, should the reptile fasten itself upon us, we can 
" shake olfthe beast and feel no harm." The race 
set before us, like our Master's, lies through the 
world. It needs patience, because painful some- 
times, and always arduous; but it should be run 
with courage, because, through the power of Him, 
who finishes the faith of his people, it is safe ; while 
none will ever reach the goal, above which Jesus 
sits triumphant, if, from any weariness or faintness 
in their minds, they refuse to follow his steps. 

Still the question recurs, How are we to use the 
world so as not to abuse it? 

Much of the trouble conscientious Christians 
have in finding a satisfactory answer, arises from 
their attempting to decide each particular case by 
its own particular rule, instead of establishing cer- 
tain great principles, which would determine all. 



142 HOW TO USE THE WORLD 

If the heart be faithfully kept, its issues in our ac- 
tual practice will be right; but no scrupulosity of 
outward demeanour can hide from God an inward 
rebellion. Nothing weakens our moral sense more 
than hair-breadth distinctions and minute obser- 
vances; for soon, under such fantastic discipline, 
w r e come to make the colour of our garments, or 
our daily diet, matters of absurd importance ; as if 
an honest mind were more acceptable to God under 
one coat than another, or a Christian the better 
man for eating fish on a Friday rather than flesh, 
within the bounds of a healthful decorum. 

Then, again, we are apt to confound the world 
which God made good, with that world, which, if I 
may use so bold a figure, we have made for our- 
selves. What comes from God, cannot itself be 
evil, nor has the devil power to render it hurtful. 
When used in the manner and within the limits 
which God has prescribed, the world must be not 
only good, but beneficial ; when we pervert or ex- 
ceed its natural ends, we torment ourselves by our 
own sin. The warmth of a winter's fire is no rea- 
son for burning down one's house, nor the refresh- 
ment of a bath for suicide by drowning. The 
pleasantness of food to the hungry, does not justify 
an epicure ; nor the sweetness of rest after toil, the 
sluggard. If we fling ourselves from the pinnacle 



AS NOT ABUSING IT. 



143 



of a temple, we cannot expect to be upborne like a 
bird on its wings ; and, if we will adventure to walk 
on the sea, we must sink in its depths. As the au- 
thor of the Book of Wisdom says, " Seek not death 
by the error of your life, neither procure ye de- 
struction by the works of your hands; for God 
made not death, neither hath he pleasure in the de- 
struction of the living. For he created all things 
that they might be, and he made the generations of 
the earth for health; and there is no poison of de- 
struction in them, nor the kingdom of death upon 
earth; for righteousness is immortal." 

The world to us is, therefore, properly, the con- 
dition or the sphere of things in which God has 
placed us; and, since no mischief can reach us 
through it, which does not come from ourselves, a 
proper government of ourselves in view of our re- 
lations to it, will regulate properly our use of the 
world. 

Thus we are to regard ourselves as creatures, 
sinners, Christians, and heirs of heaven; which 
should lead us to use the world obediently, cau- 
tiously, thankfully, and zealously. 

First: Obediently, as Creatures; 

Secondly : Cautiously, as Sinners; 

Thirdly: Thankfully, as Christians; 

Fourthly: Zealously, as Heirs of heaven. 



144 HOW TO USE THE WORLD 

First : Obediently, as Creatures. 

We are creatures of God, and, therefore, have no 
right to ourselves, except in subordination to his 
right as our Creator. The things of the world are 
creatures of God, and we have no right to them, 
except as he allows them to us. Our fellow-beings 
are creatures of God, and we have no rights incon- 
sistent with those, which he has given them. 

The Creator alone perfectly understands the na- 
ture and purposes of his own works ; except, there- 
fore, as we learn from him, we can know nothing 
aright as to the management of ourselves, the uses 
of the world, and the just interests of our fellow- 
beings. 

God has given us a sufficient revelation to direct 
our choice, define our liberty, and adjust our con- 
duct towards others ; in which he proposes motives 
of reward and punishment, while he declares that 
he will hold us to a strict account for all he has 
committed to our hands as his stewards. 

It follows then, that, as creatures, dependent 
upon God, ignorant without God, and responsible 
to God, his will is our only guide. Every use of 
the world, conformably to His will, is right; every 
use of it contrary to His will, is an abuse. We are 
as much bound to use it according to His com- 
mands, as we are not to abase it in violation of 



AS NOT ABUSING IT. 



145 



them. The lot assigned us is the sphere in which 
God requires our service, and to be faithful, we 
must neither shrink from it, nor presume beyond 
it, but obey God. 

Secondly : Cautiously, as sinners. 

Sin has wrought such a deplorable revolution in 
our natures, that the mind, originally the ruler of 
the body, is now, unless delivered by grace, its sub- 
ject. Our appetites bias our judgment, and our 
tendency to indulge them unduly is constant. We 
should always suspect ourselves of an excessive de- 
sire for the things of sense, and try our hearts scru- 
pulously by the law of God. 

What would be innocent and even nutritious to 
a healthful body, may be like poison to a diseased 
digestion; so, what was allowable to our moral na- 
ture when holy, may be pernicious to us now that 
we have become corrupt. Sensual gratification 
feeds our evil propensities, while it weakens our 
reason. We must practise restraint, if we would 
keep our consciences vigorous and our bodies un- 
der. 

We have departed far from the ways of God, and 
have now not merely to pursue a right course, but 
to recover ourselves from courses which are wrong. 
Hence the Master enjoins self-denial and taking up 
the cross as the very beginning of a Christian life. 

T 



146 HOW TO USE THE WORLD 

We may, therefore, be sure that we are abusing the 
world, unless we have radically changed our moral 
principles and practices. Long cherished habits 
are with difficulty put off, and w T e relapse into them 
readily. The path of duty is upward and slip- 
pery. Most anxiously should we scrutinize our 
conduct, lest any evil remain in us, and most cir- 
cumspectly should we walk, lest we fall. We can 
never be thoroughly right or perfectly safe, until 
we reach heaven, because, though the world be not 
itself evil, we are sinners. 

Thirdly: Thankfully, as Christians. 

Faith in Christ makes us children of God. We 
are under the care of an all-wise and most merciful 
Father. Whatever, therefore, we have or have not 
of this world, we should regard as the manifestation 
of his love, as that which he determines is best for 
us, and as the means of our growth in grace. If he 
give, we should thank him for honouring us as his 
stewards ; if he withhold, we should thank him for 
sparing us from temptation; if he take away, we 
should thank him for chastening us from a probable 
idolatry. 

By faith we become followers and friends of 
Christ. While he was on earth, he demonstrated 
the divinity of his Gospel by his holy, patient and 
useful life. His virtue shone brighter from trial, 



AS NOT ABUSING IT. 



147 



and persecution, and reproach, while he devoted all 
his energies to doing good. He has left his church 
to be witnesses of the same truth. The Christian 
is called to walk in the same path, to do the same 
human works, to bear meekly the same trials. 
Thankful, therefore, should the Christian be for 
his lot in the world, because it allows him oppor- 
tunities to testify his love for Christ, to imitate 
Christ by setting an example of religion, and to 
manifest the power of the Gospel in the sanctifica- 
tion of his life. It is the cause of Christ, which 
requires him to resist the temptations of prosperity, 
to bear without repining the burden of affliction, 
and to make sacrifices of self for the best welfare 
of his fellow-sinners. The greater danger, the more 
honour; the harder work, the more reward; the 
deeper tribulation, the more like Christ. 

By faith we have the grace of the Holy Ghost. 
But that grace can be enjoyed only when attempt- 
ing our duty. It is seen only in its fruits. Yet 
the Christian is promised its ever ready help and 
entire sufficiency for every possible difficulty. 
There is no trouble it cannot enable him to bear, 
no enemy it cannot make him conqueror over, no 
duty which by it he cannot perform. His greatest 
trials have the assurance of greater blessings; 
and, with grace increasing as he goes on through 



148 HOW TO USE THE WORLD 

the world, he knows that grace will crown his work 
on earth, with the glory of heaven. 

If, therefore, we be Christians indeed, we should 
use the world thankfully, as the lot our heavenly 
Father chooses for us, the sphere in which we 
may glorify our divine Master, and the scene of 
our sanctincation by the Holy Ghost. 

Fourthly: Zealously, as Heirs of heaven. 

It is the Christian's peculiar faculty to look 
through this life and contemplate eternity. Be- 
cause he knows that his home is there, he feels 
himself to be a pilgrim and sojourner here. The 
world being thus thrown under the light of heaven, 
he judges nothing here to be of value, but every 
thing hurtful, except as it tends to his eternal ad- 
vantage. The proper use of the world, therefore, 
is preparation for eternity; and that preparation, 
God has taught us, lies in the Christian perform- 
ance of our present duties. The providence of 
Christ, as Head of his church, is perfectly consist- 
ent with the providence of God, as Creator. All 
the relations appointed to us by God in Christ, are 
legitimate means of ripening for eternity. At that 
judgment, from which men will be forever sepa- 
rated in the two opposite directions of heaven and 
hell, we shall be tried by the unchangeable law, 
Christ came not to destroy, but to fulfil. There 



AS NOT ABUSING IT. 



149 



are no greater pests in religion than those, who 
would separate the morality of the law from the 
practice of the Gospel. Our ohedience to God is 
the evidence of our faith in Christ, for the end of 
his salvation is the deliverance of his people from 
sin. In consequence of our fallen state, certain 
evangelical duties have been superadded, which 
could not have been needed were man innocent ; 
such as those belonging to our repentance, the re- 
lief of human suffering, and the spread of the Gos- 
pel; but all our original duties remain not the less 
binding. Therefore, as we would wish to make our 
calling and election sure ; to obtain, through the 
merits of our Advocate, acquittance before God, 
and to be faithful stewards of the things he has 
trusted us with, we should be zealous in our obe- 
dient, cautious, Christian use of the world. 

Besides, though the saints of God will doubtless 
serve him forever in heaven, there are methods of 
doing his will and advancing his glory, which be- 
long only to our present sphere. It is in this life 
that souls are to be converted. No mercy reaches 
those who have died impenitent. Christ preached 
his Gospel only on earth, and, in this life, set before 
men the perfect example which they must follow to 
gain heaven. As his servants in the work of sal- 
vation, our zeal is confined to this life. The rela- 



150 HOW TO USE THE WORLD 

tions which we sustain to our fellow-sinners, and 
which give us more or less influence over them, 
should, therefore, be zealously used for the great 
end of their salvation. Here the parent should 
train up children for God, friend should persuade 
friend, and, in the wide range of His love who died 
for the world, man should not rest while a fellow- 
man remains unconverted. Whatever of the world 
can legitimately be made to help us in spreading 
the Gospel, should be cultivated, that it may be 
subsidized for the glory of Christ, the welfare of 
other men's souls, and, intimately connected with 
our efforts on their behalf, the advantage of our 
own. Now we may hope, by the divine blessing, 
to rescue immortal creatures from eternal death, 
and to increase the population of heaven with hap- 
py, holy worshippers of the Lamb that was slain; 
but, one moment after they or we have ceased to 
breathe this lower atmosphere, our opportunities 
are past forever. When we think of this, and the 
blessedness of our hope, for which we should ren- 
der grateful devotion to Christ, there is no limit 
that ought to be set in our following of Him who 
wrought while it was day, because the night cometh, 
after w T hose fall no man can work. 

Heaven is the place of reward. We can enter it 
only by the merits of Christ, and prepare for it 



AS NOT ABUSING IT. 



151 



only by the grace of Christ ; yet not the least pro- 
vision of mercy is, that God will then pay rich 
wages for every service rendered him by Christians 
on earth. " Blessed are the dead who die in the 
Lord, for they rest from their labours and their 
works do follow them." All the stars of the fir- 
mament are glorious, yet one differs from another 
in glory; so, while all the redeemed are ra- 
diant with joy immortal, their rank will be deter- 
mined by the degree of their fidelity, and those 
stand nearest the throne, wear the richest crowns, 
sing the loudest hallelujahs, who have done and 
suffered the most for Christ. The Redeemer's re- 
ward is seeing in bliss the multitude, whom he pur- 
chased by his blood, justified by his righteousness, 
and secured by his intercession; and the reward 
of his follower will be, seeing the sheaves he has 
helped to gather for the heavenly harvest. How 
should this thought fill us with a holy ambition, by 
a zealous use of the world, to lay up each hour 
some treasure in heaven ! 

Consider, in connexion with these high aims, 
how short life is at the longest, how uncertain our 
hold of it ! How much there is to be done ! How 
feeble our powers ! How few there are to work 
with us! Heir of heaven, "the fashion of this 
world passeth away," but eternity remaineth! 



152 HOW TO USE THE WORLD 

The fires of hell are unquenchable; heaven's re- 
ward is immortal ! Let us use the world for that 
endless consequence, remembering that else we 
abuse it irremediably. No wasted moment ever 
returns ; no diligent hour but has perpetual fruits. 

Be not, my hearers, among those who despise 
the world. Count all that a sinful heart would 
propose of its evanescent pleasures and gains and 
honours, as loss for Christ's sake; but, at the 
same time, cherish all that is in it, which you can 
use obediently, safely, thankfully and for eternity, 
precious as God's gifts, Christ's honour, the soul's 
redemption and heaven's reward. Love life, as the 
brief space into which is crowded every opportu- 
nity of preparation to live forever, the arena on 
which you are to win the crown of righteousness, 
the road which you must travel to reach your Fa- 
ther's house. 

Refuse not the bounty of God. He has rilled 
earth with beauty not to tempt us, but that we 
might temperately enjoy, serve him more cheerful- 
ly, and bless him at all times. " What God has 
cleansed, that call not thou unclean." It is super- 
stition, the spirit of antichrist, to make life a pen- 
ance, and to fling back the gifts of a good Provi- 
dence as too dangerous for his children. 

Above all, think not of saving yourself from sin, 



AS NOT ABUSING IT. 



153 



by escaping from duty. Arm yourselves with the 
shield of faith, the breastplate of righteousness, the 
hope of salvation, and the preparation of the Gos- 
pel of Peace ; then, press onward with patience in 
the race set before you. Fulfil your duties to your 
family, to your neighbourhood, to your country, and 
to the world. The Christian's rule is, Love supreme 
to God, and to his fellow man as himself, for God's 
sake. He is not called to be a hermit. Let him 
leave the forest to the beast, the desert to the rep- 
tile ; but, as a man among men, show himself a fol- 
lower of Jesus, who blessed with holy converse the 
social board, delighted in the household of Bethany, 
loved the friend who rested on his bosom, and 
permitted not the prattling children to be sent 
away, until he had taken them up in his arms and 
pressed them close to his holy heart. How did He 
recommend himself as a Teacher of righteousness? 
Was it not by kind deeds, gentle words, and cour- 
teous gesture? Thus did also our apostle Paul, 
that pattern of a Christian gentleman, who was 
willing to make tents for his bread, but declined 
no method of winning favour, except the withhold- 
ing of truth. So should we be pitiful and cour- 
teous, loving the brethren and honouring all men, 
that when we would speak to them of Christ, they 
may listen to us as friends, 
u 



1j4 how to use the world 

Yet. let us remember always, that we are God's 
creatures, and should obey him in all things, making 
his law our only rule : that we are sinful beings, 
who should use cautiously even permitted things, 
lest we abuse them to sin : that we are Christians, 
bound to deny ourselves, and bear the cross alter 
Jesus, while we thankfully improve all our oppor- 
tunities of good : and that we are heirs of heaven, 
whose life is a pilgrimage, and whose onlv purpose 
here should be to reach eternal rest, while we carry 
with us all whom we can persuade to be fellow 
heirs of our Father's kingdom, by becoming fellow 
servants with us of his Son Jesus Christ. 

What shall be said of those who abuse the world, 
by an utter forgetfulness of the divine law and 
neglect of the divine Gospel 1 Their every act. 
word, thought, is sin. They neither obey God. 
nor honour his Son. They waste in present folly 
that divine bounty, which might be made fruitful 
of immortal blessing, and lay up for their endless 
future only an accumulated condemnation. Of all 
thev have had. enjoyed or suffered here, they have 
nothing to carry before the judgment seat, as a 
proof of their fidelity or their gratitude. Every 
gift of God will bear witness against them. Christ 
will offer no argument for them, and remorse will 
burn within them like a fire unquenchable, at the 
thought that they have destroyed themselves. 



SERMON VIII. 



FAITH IX THE SOX OF GOD, VICTORIOUS. 



FAITH IN THE SON OF GOD. VICTORIOUS. 



1 John v. 5. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that 
believeth Jesus is the Son of God I 

Compliments are freely paid to the morals of the 
New Testament, at the expense of its doctrines. 
Many, who would rather be considered our friends 
than our opponents, often say to us: "Why waste 
so much zeal in contending for points of abstract 
faith, which you acknowledge is worthless without 
good works, when you might be so much more pro- 
fitably employed in setting forth the simple moral 
teachings, and the beautiful example of Jesus ? 
There lies the grand excellence of your scheme, 
the true glory of Christianity above all other reli- 
gions." 

This advice, plausible as it seems, and well-meant 
as it may be, we unhesitatingly reject. It is at va- 
riance with the essential spirit of the Gospel, the 
express declarations of its divine Author, the re- 



158 FAITH IN THE SOX OF GOD. 

c jrded methods of its inspired apostles, and the 
avowed experience of its best professors. The 
evangelical doctrines are not mere abstractions, but 
fundamental religious truths, upon which the evan- 
gelical morality is established, and without which it 
has neither strength nor consistency. ""Who is 
he." asks the apostle, "that overcometh the world, 
but he that believeth that Jesus Christ is the Son 
of God'" It is the dignity of his person. "God 
manifest in the flesh.'"' and the attractive glory of 
his cross, the atonement for sinners, which give to 
the ethics of the Galilean sage their authority and 
power. It is faith in the cardinal doctrine of the 
Gospel, that "God is ix Christ reconciling the 
world f/xto Himself," which, by subduing the 
heart to the love of God. and opening to the expec- 
tation of the soul a spiritual and eternal heaven, 
constrains the believer to follow in the foot-prints 
of Jesus, and uplifts him triumphant over the diffi- 
culties of virtue and the temptations of time. 

The heathen philosophers, from the first Zoroas- 
ter to Confucius, taught every duty, which, apart 
from a religious consideration of his immortal well- 
being, man owes to man. Open any of their hooks, 
of whatever sect or nation, and you may read elo- 
quent and wise discourses upon piety to parents, 
the sanctity of friendship, the advantage of tempe- 



g 9 

VICTORIOUS. 159 

ranee, the dignity of continence, the nobility of jus- 
tice, and the grandeur of truth. They may be writ- 
ten in other words, but, separated from faith in the 
doctrines of Christ, there is little new In the ethical 
maxims of the New Testament, and little in its 
illustrative examples transcending what the world 
has already seen. 

That the evangelical morals and examples are in- 
comparably superior to all others, it is the glory of 
a Christian to know; but, at the same time, they 
both derive their peerless advantage from that sys- 
tem of doctrine to which they are inseparably 
united. If Jesus of Nazareth taught the rule so 
wonderfully comprehensive and clear as to win the 
instant suffrage of all who hear it, " Whatsoever ye 
would that men should do unto you, do ye also even 
so to them;" Pittacus, of Mitylene, had said to his 
disciples six hundred years before, "Do not that to 
your neighbour, which you would take ill from him."* 
The better class of his time would have agreed with 
Cicero when he declared, "It is better to suffer an 
injury than to do one;"f and, though there is a vast 
interval between this sentiment and our Lord's 
commands, "Love your enemies," and "Render 
good for evil," Christ himself drew his higher rule 
only from that doctrine, which the Tusculan philo- 

* Stobseus, Ser. III. f Tusc. Quaes, v. 19. 



160 FAITH IX THE SOX OF GOD. 

soplier knew nothing of. the mercy of God towards 
us: Shouldest thou not have compassion on thy 
fellow-servant, even as I have pity on thee'" For- 
giveness toward others is a debt we owe to God's 
forgiveness of us. as we pray. •• Forgive us our 
debts as we forgive our debtors." Plato drew from 
his own philosophical imagination the history of a 
just max. steadfast in truth under universal re- 
proach,, and. having been scourged and mocked, dy- 
ing a martyr on a cross, serene in admirable sub- 
mission to an over-ruling T\ ill. - Socrates lived poor 
and careless of himself, that he might spend his time 
in teaching men practical goodness : and. blessing his 
friends and forgiving his enemies with his latest 
breath, willingly surrendered his life to the execu- 
tioner, that he might seal the truth of his creed and 
consummate his example. 

Yet what did those heathen teachers accomplish 
for mankind ] The world persecuted them while 
living, wept for them and deified them when dead, 
but grew worse and worse. It is from the very 
date of the first who made morals a science, that 
we trace the most rapid decay of morality. Plato 
dreamed of abstraction from the multiplicity of mat- 
ter into divine unity, while Athens grovelled in ex- 
cesses under the sanction of a false religion which 

* Rep. II. 51. 52. 



VICTORIOUS. 



161 



he dared not impeach; and Seneca, after having 
studied antitheses for his feeble apothegms, went 
from his most luxurious home to sup with Agrip- 
pina and his pupil Nero. 

Whence was this insufficiency? Were they not 
agreed in the great truth, that Virtue is the highest 
good, and its own best reward? Was this less true 
from their lips, than it is on the page of the Gospel? 
Has not the human mind, however heretical the hu- 
man heart may have been, assented to it in all ages 
and among all people ? Why, then, such universal 
failure out of the Christian school? 

My brethren, they lacked the two grand charac- 
teristics of the Christian system, authority and 
motive. 

They had no infallible umpire to decide what was 
virtue, or what was truth. They had no sufficient 
evidence, that one eternal law of righteousness ruled 
heaven and earth, time and eternity, making it sure 
that what a man sowed he should also reap, if not 
in this life, in another. Their morality, at the best, 
was but the guess of human reason, not the teach- 
ing of God ; and, as such, a theory, beautiful, but 
incomplete; probable, but by no means certain. 
The wisest, the most candid, and the best of them 
all, deeply felt the want of such authority, when he 
hoped that God would send one from Himself, who 
x 



162 FAITH IN THE SOX OF GOD. 

should teach us how to pray, and how to live ac- 
ceptably to him. 

There was, consequently, a want of motive. 
They saw no Almighty love and wisdom embracing 
each other and coming down from heaven to earth, 
inviting them, drawing them, and opening the way 
for them from earth to heaven. The world around 
them was full of triumphant vice; and virtue, ap- 
plauded in the theatre or lecture hall, was hissed at 
in the streets, ridiculed at the banquet, and ostra- 
cised from the state. Life beyond the grave was 
doubtful, and, even were it certain, they had no rea- 
son to believe, that the same evils would not pursue 
them, and the Gods be as unjust in eternity as they 
were in time. If, then, in their better moments, 
they had some aspirations after virtue, where was 
the motive to nerve them against the insurgences of 
appetite, and the allurements or persecutions of the 
world? They were sure only of this life, and here 
vice had more reward than virtue. No wonder that 
they gave up so soon the unequal struggle, and re- 
solved £- 'to eat, and drink, and crown themselves 
with roses, for to-morrow they would die." Their 
ethics were of the head, not of the heart: virtue 
was beloved as an intellectual pursuit ; their heaven 
(if heaven there were) belonged to the few who 
could cultivate mental abstraction ; and their moral 



VICTORIOUS. 



163 



maxims, beautiful as they sometimes seem, were 
like the pale up-shootings in northern skies from 
regions of eternal frost, fitful, ungenial and cold. 

Not such is Christianity. Jesus, our Teacher, 
is no feeble, fallible, doubting struggler, like our- 
selves, amidst shadows and difficulties. He is God 
come down from heaven. The Almighty Supreme, 
who thought it not beneath him to create man, con- 
descends to the nobler work of redeeming him, re- 
newing him, guiding him, and elevating him again 
to the knowledge and holiness he has lost by sin. 
To assure us of his love and nearness to his earth- 
born children, he takes our nature, and wraps it 
around his parental deity. To demonstrate his es- 
timation of steadfast virtue, the Man in whom he 
dwells is a man of sorrows, despised and rejected of 
men; yet, burdened as he is with grief, marking, by 
his human feet, the strait path of righteousness in 
which God walks before his children. In his one 
example we behold the holiness of God and man's 
true virtue; and we learn that the perfection of 
human morality is likeness to our Maker, the Law- 
giver and Judge of all worlds. 

Nor is this all. Had the Son of God only exhi- 
bited the perfection of that virtue he requires of us, 
his coming would have been to condemn ; for who 
can stand if tried by His life? If the example of 



* 



164 FAITH Ui THE SOX OF GOD. 

Jesus be the only way to heaven, who of us can 
walk in it. who can reach its sublime purity and 
goodness ? Better leave us to doubt with the hea- 
then, than overwhelm us in despair ! But. when 
,; the law in the hands of the Mediator." has con- 
vinced us of sin. of our guilt, our weakness, and of 
judgment to come. God. by the same Teacher, and 
the same history of his life upon earth, reveals 
his mercy : shows how. by the obedience and suffer- 
ings of the man Christ Jesus, sustained and digni- 
fied from the God within him, He can be just, and 
yet save to the uttermost every penitent soul that 
will submit to his righteousness, by accepting par- 
don through the merits of his Son; and then en- 
courages us to attempt the arduous, upward duty of 
following Christ by the promise, that as God dwelt 
in the man Christ Jesus, and wrought, through him. 
his beautiful and constant virtue, so his divine Spi- 
rit will dwell in the sin-weakened man who implores 
his help, renewing him with a holy energy as life 
was breathed into him at his first creation, and 
working in him both to will and to do of God"s 
good pleasure. The sinner thus pardoned, raised 
from the depths of his infirmity by an Almighty 
hand, conscious of divine sympathy, and animated 
by divinity within him, looks upward through the 
veil rent by the Son of God ascending in our na- 



VICTORIOUS. 



165 



ture to glory on high, and beholds the honour, 
the joy. the immortal splendour? which await the 
faithful follower of Jesus after death. 

It is because the Christian believes in the autho- 
rity, the atonement, and the glory of Christ the Son 
of God; in the love and sympathy of God in Christ; 
in the promise of the Spirit's sustaining grace, and 
in the certainty of an inheritance upon which his 
Forerunner has for him entered, that he has from 
the Gospel sufficient motive to preserve a constant 
obedience to the morals of Jesus, at the cost of any 
worldly shame, self-denial or suffering:. Tear those 
morals away from the divinity of Jesus, the atone- 
ment of his cross, and the power of his throne, and 
they would be cold, inoperative and uncertain, as 
those of the Porch, the Academy or the Garden. 
Tell me that Jesus was a mere human teacher of 
truth, and his death nothing more than a martyr- 
dom for truth's sake, and how shall I decide be- 
tween the Son of Sophroniscus and the Son of 
Mary? But. when I see the sun hiding himself in 
unnatural eclipse, and feel the earth shuddering in 
strong convulsions as the Crucified expires. I ex- 
claim with the centurion at the foot of the cross. 
"Truly this was the Son of God." "When I trace 
his admirable life as an example of the virtue I 
must attain, before I can follow him in hope of im- 



166 FAITH IN THE SOX OF GOD. 

mortal life. I bow myself in my infirmity and de- 
spair. But when I hear the cry. "It is Finished!" 
from my Saviour, as he gives up the ghost for me. 
and know that his righteousness covers all my un- 
worthiness. that his blood washes away all my sins, 
and that my reconciliation to God is complete in 
Him. then do I cast myself without fear upon His 
love, "who of God is made unto me wisdom, and 
righteousness, and sanctirication. and redemption." 

Therefore it was. that when Jesus wished to fling 
down the self-righteous from his pride, he said. "If 
thou wouldest enter into life, keep the command- 
ments;" but. when he met a sincere inquirer after 
God. he declared his divine Gospel. "God so loved 
the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life." Therefore it was. that his 
chiefest apostle, after having "concluded all under 
sin," demonstrated "'peace with God" to all who 
are "justified by faith through our Lord Jesus 
Christ." Therefore, also, the beloved disciple de- 
clares. "This is the victory that overcometh the 
world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh 
the world, but he that believeth that Jesus Christ 
is the Son of God?"' Take away this faith from 
Christianity, and, however classically you may drape 
it, it is cold as the marble which human hands have 



VICTORIOUS. 



167 



fashioned into a counterfeit of life; the heart of re- 
ligion has ceased to beat, the divine glory around 
her head shines no more, and we are left amidst the 
dark shadows of what is called natural religion, to 
wallow in the vices of heathenism, or, at best, to 
dream in the unsubstantial philosophy of those who 
slept in the regions of death. As for us. our Mas- 
ter is the Son of God. the Crucified; our ethics, 
faith in Him who died for our sins, and "left us an 
example that we should follow in his steps."' 

Talk they of morals! thou bleeding Love, 
Our best morality is love of Thee. 

Our inspired text strongly vindicates the doc- 
trine of justification by faith from the charge of 
tolerating a negligence of practice, for the apostle 
declares that the proper effect of faith is a 
conquest of the world. "The world " is an ene- 
my against which we are to right. 

The world, as God made it. is no enemy of ours. 
All the works of God should lead us to him ; all 
his gifts should make us grateful, and our sorrows 
should convince us of his parental faithfulness in 
afflicting us for our good. It cannot be that the 
Creator, who has given us senses so exquisitely 
susceptible, and has surrounded us with so many 
sources and occasions of delight, filling the world 



16S faith in the son of god. 

with beauty, grandeur and variety, is pleased 
when we turn away our eyes from the charms 
of nature, or close our ears to the voice of mu- 
sic, or trample ungratefully upon the incense- 
breathing lowers, or satisfy our hunger and take 
our repose, without some sense of enjovment. 
All this richness of bountv is intended for man. 



to receive from it happmtss anc pront. Asce- 
tic seclusion from those pleasures which God 




wnen ue discovered tue G:a 01 redemption in 
the works of his hands: our blessed Lord, our 
best Teacher, took the texts of his holy sermons 

written Word; nor could the revelator of the hea- 
venlv vis: jii describe to us the joys of the Xew 
Jerusalem, without painting them in all the lan- 
.~e we use to express wnat God has made 
delightful on earth. It was within a garden, 
a garden :■: deliguts Eden}, that man first rose 
from the dust, to begin existence in commu- 
u::u with G : d : and heaven, where ne will be re- 
stored to perfect holiness, is the second Paradise : 



VICTORIOUS. 169 

there must, therefore, be some important connexion 
between a right enjoyment of the works of God 
and our best interests. 

This argument is still stronger, with regard to 
the gifts of God more necessary to our life. They 
are good. We must not doubt their goodness, be- 
cause they are creatures of God, and fruits of his 
bounty. He has qualified them to give us gratifi- 
cation, and for the enjoyment we have in them, we 
should be thankful as well as for the things them- 
selves. 

Afflictions are painful. They were meant to give 
us pain. When they cease to be painful, they 
cease to be afflictions. " No chastening for the 
present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous." Yet 
it is the Christian's privilege to believe his very 
troubles blessings, because they are part of that 
discipline, by which God is preparing him for a 
higher, holier happiness in eternity. 

The world of men, is not to be regarded by us as 
an enemy. We are commanded to love and to serve 
them, seeking their good as Christ sought theirs 
and ours. They may hate, persecute, and what 
is far more dangerous, tempt us. It may be our 
duty to guard against them, and to suffer from 
them. Still the spirit in which we are to live 
among them and with them, is that of love and be- 



170 FAITH IN THE SON OF GOD, 

nefaction, such as our Master manifested until his 
last breath upon the cross. 

Where then is the enemy, which the apostle calls 
" the world" ? and where is the proper scene of this 
victorious conflict? My brethren, our enemy is 
within, not without. The battle is to be fought in 
our awn hearts ; those hearts, which from their in- 
firmity and sin, are prone to turn into evil that 
which God made good, and to find occasion of 
guilt, where he opens opportunities of virtue. It 
is against the illusions, the seductions, the opposi- 
tions and the sufferings, which our evil hearts, or 
the infirmities consequent upon sin, make in the 
world. If our principles of religion be right and 
firm, there is no seeming evil from which we may 
not extract good; if they be wrong or weak, there 
is nothing so good but we may turn it into evil. Is 
the beauty of Nature an evil, because man turns 
his back upon God as he admires it? Are the 
food and drink God gives us evils, because man 
gorges himself in glut+onous excess? Is suffer- 
ing, or even temptation, an evil, when God means 
it as a test of our truth, and a purifier of our 
thoughts, because we have not the courage to bear 
or withstand it? No. The fight is to be main- 
tained within, and the disposition of the heart to 
make good evil by abuse, must be changed into a 



VICTORIOUS. 



171 



temper which makes every thing and every event a 
means of godly virtue. 

We are not to escape from the world, but to 
"overcome" it. In the world lie our duties. It is 
the theatre upon which we are to obey God and 
serve our fellow-men. Hard as the struggle may 
be, it is unfaithful cowardice to fly from the scene 
where God requires us to act. No Christian would 
justify suicide, as a method of escaping temptation. 
But is not that a moral suicide which, for the sake 
of cultivating our personal piety, secludes us from 
the world, and all the fair occasions of doing good 
to man, or of setting an example of Christian stead- 
fastness, to the praise of the grace of God? Will 
not God demand of such a spirit, as he did of the 
first murderer, "Where is thy brother?" Where 
is thy neighbour? And who will dare to reply, 
that he was too much absorbed in the care of his 
own soul, to "be his brother's keeper"? There 
are certain forms of temptation, indeed, from which 
we are to fly, as he fled, who exclaimed, " How shall 
I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" 
" Flee youthful lusts," says the apostle. But these 
are exceptions, nor is it necessary to fly out of the 
world, for the apostle adds, " Follow righteousness, 
faith, charity." 

Neither do we escape the real evil by such 



1 12 FAITH IN THE SON OF GOD, 

seclusion. The devil tempted Christ often, but 
his most cunning trial of our great Example, was 
when alone, in a desert place, and after a long 
fast. We may change the form of temptation, 
but not escape from temptation. The object of 
the tempter is to drive us from our duties, and, 
when we fly, we yield. The virtues of the Chris- 
tian life are social; they must be practised among 
our fellow-men. They lie in temperance, not ab- 
stinence; in doing good, not in forsaking it. The 
Christian warrior has a helmet for his head, a 
breast-plate for his heart, and shoes for his feet, 
with a shield of faith, by the interposition of which 
he can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked; 
but there is no armour for his back. The moment 
he turns his face from the conflict, he is defence- 
less. 

Since, then, the battle is within the heart, the 
method of the Gospel is clearly the only successful 
warfare. It is to overcome motives to evil by mo- 
tives to good; by the superior force of those mo- 
tives which give sanction to the laws of Christ, to 
defeat the power of those temptations our evil 
hearts find in the world to sin. How is this ac- 
complished ? 

"This is the victory that overcometh the world, 
even our faith ." "Now," says the apostle, "faith 



VICTORIOUS. 



173 



is the substance of things hoped for, and the evi- 
dence of things not seen;" faith in the unseen, to 
overcome the sensible ; faith in the eternal, to over- 
come the earthly and the passing. 

A man believes in God; believes him to be his 
Benefactor, his Saviour, his Judge, and ever pre- 
sent. A temptation, strong, subtle and imme- 
diate, presents itself befo^^him. No human wit- 
ness is nigh. His nature urges him to yield. In 
another moment he would fall. But faith comes 
to his aid, and throws, between him and the sin, the 
presence of his God, the cross of Christ, the terri- 
ble judgment seat: "Thou, my God, seest me; 
thou, O Holy One ; thou, O Christ ; thou, Searcher 
and Judge!" he exclaims, and he is safe. Faith has 
fought in his heart and overcome the world. 

"Faith worketh by love," says the apostle. It 
is a principle of God's government that love must 
urge us to every duty; and for every relation of 
life there is an affection. Look at that young wo- 
man. A little while since, she seemed only to live 
for herself, for pleasure and admiration. No re- 
wards could have bribed her to self-denial, retire- 
ment and watchfulness. But follow her now to 
yonder shadowed room. She is beside the cradle 
of her babe. She has forgotten the world. Her 
world is in her child. The babe is sick. Fever 



4 



174 



FAITH IN THE SOX OF GOD. 



has breathed upon it. It has lain for weeks, hover- 
ing betwixt life and death : but the changed girl is 
there, unwearied by clay, sleepless by night. The 
babe grows. He is a wayward boy. a disobedient 
and profligate youth : but. though all cast him away, 
the mother's heart yearns over him. pities him. par- 
dons him. loves him still. "Why? "What reward 
has she I What has thus changed her whole na- 
ture ? The love which" grew with that babe in her 
heart, and was born unquenchable with his immor- 
tal life. Now. my brethren, this is the powerful 
charm by which faith does its work in the Christian's 
transformation. When God converts a sinner to 
his service. He inspires him with love. The love of 
Christ constraineth him to live not to himself, •'•'but 
to Him who died for him and rose again."' It is the 
remembrance of Christ, his best, truest, most faith- 
ful friend,, which prevails in his heart over the 
world's temptation to sin? How can he sin for his 
own pleasure, when Christ, whom he loves above 
all others, died to save him and make him holy? 

Hope is the child of faith. The Christian be- 
lieves in an eternal heaven, and. therefore, he hopes 
for it. What were we without hope, the nerve of 
enterprise, the soul of patience, the cordial of the 
sick ! The sailor braves for it the storm and the 
wave : the merchant ventures for it his wealth and 



VICTORIOUS. 



175 



his name; the student gives for it his long and 
anxious nights. 

The Christian hopes; and when the world 
tempts, and his evil nature incites, and the devil 
flatters, he looks upward to Jesus, where He sits 
at the right hand of God. "A little longer," he 
says, "and the struggle will be over. My sorrows 
shall fly away before the eternal morning ; and the 
crown, the palm, the harp, and the smile of God 
shall be mine." He believes the promise of his 
Lord. He has a hope of the better, the nobler, the 
more enduring. His faith has overcome the world. 

Thus is the Christian's life a fight ; but he strug- 
gles manfully, courageously, cheerfully, and confi- 
dently. He knows that God is with him. He 
knows that God will help him. He knows that 
God will give him the victory. 

His fight is onward, still urging forward his 
march, through ambush and ranks of open enemies, 
until he reaches the grave, and bows his uncon- 
quered head to Him who is the Resurrection and 
the Life. Angels have watched him through all his 
difficult career, though he has seen them not. Now, 
they hover within his dying sight. He seizes the 
omen. " Victory!" he cries, as he gives up his 
breath. "Victory!" shout his guard of heavenly 
friends, as they bear upward his exulting spirit 



176 FAITH IN THE SON OF GOD, VICTORIOUS. 

from the world he has overcome. "Victory!" re- 
spond the keepers of the everlasting gates, as 
they fling wide open and uplifted the portals of 
the skies. "Victory!" "Victory!" "Victory!" is 
heard in thundering acclamations, as he passes on 
through the shining ranks toward the inner cir- 
cle around the Lamb that was slain, and kneels 
at his feet. " Blessed art thou, for thou hast over- 
come !" pronounces the King of the Church, and 
crowns him with leaves from the Tree of Life. 
Now heaven is hushed to hear the voice of their 
ransomed brother: and clear, and reverent, and joy- 
ful, is that voice, as he casts from his head the 
crown at his Master's feet, and cries, " Thine be 
the praise, my Lord and my God. Thy faith hath 
given me the victory. I have triumphed in thy 
name !" Then burst from countless armies of souls 
redeemed like him, floods of praise loud as many 
waters, •'•Thanks! Thanks! Thanks! Thanks be 
to God. who gave us the victory through our Lord 
Jesus Christ!" 



SERMON IX. 



THE WAY TO WIN GOOD WAGES. 



z 



THE WAY TO WIN GOOD WAGES. 



1 Corinthians iii. 7, 8, 9. 

Neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; 
but God that giveth the increase. 

Now he that planteth, and he that watereth are one: and every 
man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. 

For we are workers together with God. 

It is not our aim, at this time, to open the full 
meaning of these words, hut only to take out of 
them a few thoughts that may he of use to such 
Christians, as wish to employ themselves in doing 
good for their Master's sake. 

The occasion of the text was this. The apostle 
had heard that there were foolish and wicked con- 
tentions among the Corinthian Christians. He had 
himself founded their church, as we learn from the 
xviii. of Acts, where it is said, that after leaving 
Athens, he came to Corinth, and there reasoned in 
the synagogue every Sabbath, persuading the Jews 
and Greeks; and, being encouraged by his suc- 
cess and a vision from the Lord, he abode among 



180 THE WAY TO WIN 

them a year and six months, teaching the word 
of God. After the apostle had left them, Apol- 
los, a Jew of Alexandria, who, Luke tells us, 
was a man of learning, eloquent, mighty in the 
Scriptures, and fervent in the Spirit, went, follow- 
ed hy the prayers of the brethren, to labour at Co- 
rinth. It is not unlikely, that they were visited by 
Peter also, as, it is thought, he once made a journey 
through the synagogues and churches in that part 
of the world ; that they knew about him, and his 
peculiar character as the apostle of the circumci- 
sion, is certain, for Paul speaks to them of Cephas, 
his Hebrew name, by which the converted Jews 
loved to call him. 

Instead, however, of giving God the glory, and 
of profiting by the great advantage of having such 
good preaching, they turned this very grace of God 
into an occasion of sin. They quarrelled about 
their preachers, each insisting that the one he liked 
the best, was the best, and worthy of the most ho- 
nour. Some, who perhaps were converted under 
Paul's preaching, or whose stronger minds more 
readily felt the force of his strong reasoning, called 
themselves Paul's people, or Paulites. Others, 
perhaps converted under Apollos, or carried away 
by his glowing and rushing eloquence, boasted 
themselves as his admirers. Others again, more 



GOOD WAGES. 



181 



bigotted about circumcision, as Peter or Cephas 
was somewhat himself, put him above the other 
two. While there were yet others, proud in their 
own conceit, who, forsooth, scarcely willing to be 
taught by any servant of the Lord, would inter- 
pret Christ's Gospel their own way, and claimed 
to be Christ's, as though none were such pure 
Christians as themselves. Thus they spent their 
time and their zeal, which should have been given 
up to doing good, learning religion themselves and 
teaching it to others, in glorifying mere men, and 
breaking the church up into parties. 

Paul rebukes them sharply for this, putting them 
in mind, that whatever good they gained from 
Christ's servants was from Christ himself; and, 
therefore, that they should give the glory to Christ 
alone, instead of racking his church into pieces by 
stickling about the merits of his followers. "What," 
says he, striking with greater force at his own ad- 
mirers, lest he might be thought jealous of the 
others, "Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified 
for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul? 
I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Cris- 
pus and Gaius (afterwards he adds the household 
of Stephanas), lest any should say that I had bap- 
tized in my own name ;" and, doubtless also, lest 
any should boast that they had been baptized by 



182 THE WAY TO WTN 

hini. Again, in the verses about our text; "While 
one saith, I am of Paul, another of Apollos, are 
ye not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is 
Ap olios , but ministers by whom ye believed, even 
as the Lord gave to every man, 5 ' or blessed the 
preaching ? "I have planted. Aped!:? watered, but 
God gave the increase. So then neither is he that 
planteth any thing, neither he that watereth ; hnt 
God that giveth the increase. How he that plant- 
eth and he that watereth are one, and every man 
shall receive his own reward, according to his own 
labour. For we are labourers together with God; 
ye are God's hiisbandry, ye are God's building. 
All the good they had gotten from these servants, 
was because of God's blessing upon their labours. 
Paul, it was true, had planted, and it is not likely 
that Apollo s would have done so much good, if 
Paul had not gone before him; Apollos had wa- 
tered, and it is not likely that Paul's preaching 
would have done so much, if Apollos had not 
come after him; but they were both sent by God, 
both were mstrumental in the good done, both were 
useful only as they were blessed by God, and each 
would be rewarded, not according to his seeming 
success, but his zeal and faithfulness in labouring. 

What a lesson is here for Christians in our own 
day ? How often. I had almost said how constant- 



GOOD WAGES. 



183 



ly, do we find them falling into these same errors? 
How much of what they would fain call religious 
conversation, is not of the grace and glory of God, 
the claims of his cause and the method of serving 
it, but about this preacher and that preacher, their 
comparative merits and defects, their successes or 
failures? How often is the doctrine of a sermon 
forgotten, while they praise the eloquence of the 
man; or the practical lesson disregarded, because 
his voice, his gesture, or his diction, is not to their 
taste ? 

It is natural and right that we should have a 
stronger love for those from whom we have re- 
ceived the most good, or whose manner of teaching 
seems best fitted to the character and habit of our 
minds. We learn to love that particular copy of 
the Bible, which we are accustomed to study, bet- 
ter than another, though it may have been printed 
by the same types. We love best the hymns with 
which we are familiar, and the more when we sing 
them each to its most accustomed tune. A strange 
voice, though it may discourse most excellent truth, 
rarely touches the Christian disciple's heart, like 
one with whose every tone he has associated 
some profit in the past. The artist paints best at 
his own easel ; the mechanic works best with his 
own tools; and the musician plays best upon his 



184 THE WAY TO WIN 

own instrument. It is true, also, that all per- 
sons may not get the same good from the same 
teacher. One may be of a logical turn, and like 
demonstration; another more imaginative, and like 
more of figures and tropes. One needs rousing, 
another cautioning, another comfort. So God puts 
various kinds of ministers in the church ; one fitted 
for this kind of labour, and another for that. But 
whatever useful talent they have, it is his gift; 
whatever good they do, is through his blessing. 
We are not to despise a faithful servant of his, be- 
cause he does not happen to please our taste, or to 
make a little god of him, because the Lord sends 
us good by him, like a treasure in an earthen ves- 
sel. We may thank the servant for bringing us the 
good, but we should never forget that God sent him, 
and gave him the good to carry. Nor must we 
think, because we do not happen to receive profit 
from him, that the Master may not make him the 
messenger of grace to the souls of others. To sit 
in church as critics of the preacher, rather than as 
disciples of Christ, is to bring the manners of the 
detestable play-house into the house of God. To 
follow a preacher, is not always a following of 
Christ. Admiration of an eloquent sermon will 
not take us to heaven, though neglect of what 
we pronounce a dull one may keep us out of it. 



GOOD WAGES. 



185 



Man is but the instrument; the truth is the Lord's; 
the profit is from his blessing; the loss of profit 
our own fault. 

Would we, therefore, have the cause of Christ 
prosper? and do we pray for the triumph of his 
truth? Let us rely upon his power to bless his 
word, and not consider the success as dependent 
upon the instrument he may employ; nor, if he 
do send the blessing, should we give the praise to a 
worm of the dust, like a husbandman who would 
worship the cloud, or burn incense to the sunbeam. 
The first would be almost certain to prevent the 
grace ; the second, to provoke its being taken 
away. 

Much of the mischief, that has come upon the 
church, has arisen from this very error. It is this, 
principally, which has divided the church into sects, 
and distracted it with parties. All teachers of re- 
ligion are not like Paul, but many are but too fond 
of becoming petty popes in their little circles ; and 
to baptize, if not in their own name, for their own 
credit. The large mass of the Christian laity hold the 
same great truths, and when they are found opposed 
to each other in extensive controversies about nice 
points in theology, they ordinarily know very little 
as to the real occasion of the dispute; but nine- 
tenths rush to the battle, because their favourite 
2 A 



1S6 . THE WAY TO WIN 

minister is on one side, and ministers they do not 
like on the other. 

my friends, it is Christ that saves us. his truth 
that edihes us. his Spirit that blesses us. He could 
make out of a stone in the street a more successful 
preacher, than any that has ever been encircled by 
the applauses of men: and. I doubt not. in his 
nnal revelation, it will be found that some, whom 
the church has thought the least of. God delighted 
most to bless. 

We have, from the text, great encouragement to 
work for Christ. 

We may be very weak, our talents very few. our 
opportunities, seemingly, still fewer : but our suc- 
cess does not depend upon our own force, or ge- 
nius, or influence. It is God's blessing that gives 
the increase. v\ ithout it. the mighty demonstra- 
tions of Paul, and the burning eloquence of A pol- 
ios, would have been in vain. v\ ith it. the simplest 
child in the school of Christ can overturn citadels 
of error, and build up the waste places of many ge- 
nerations. Compared with each other, some men 
may appear great, and the rest small : but. compared 
with God. as he looks down from the height that 
knows no measure, and compared with the immense 
difficulties in the way of his cause, all are worms 
of the dust, whose strength is that of the moth. He 



GOOD WAGES. 



187 



does not need our wit to devise cunning plans and 
new methods of doing good. Experience should 
have taught the church by this time, that their 
boasted moral inventions, wonder-working philoso- 
phies, and new-fangled labour-saving schemes, an- 
swer in the end but very little purpose, and, gene- 
rally, do more harm than good. God has appointed 
his own ways of doing good ; and the humble soul, 
who knows enough to see what God w^ould have 
him to do, by reading the plain precept in his Bible, 
is sure of doing God's w T ill, for he labours together 
with God. It needs little talent to learn God's will, 
but it needs much grace; and God gives that grace 
to the humble. 

God does not need our strength to accomplish 
his purposes, though he is pleased graciously to em- 
ploy us in his service. The united church could 
not, of itself, make a single blade of grass to grow, 
much less convert a single soul. Omnipotence is 
needed to do either, and omnipotence is his own, 
and was his own, before ever a human heart beat, 
a human sinew was stretched, or a human mind 
thought. The strongest among us is utterly im- 
potent for any good work ; but the weakest among 
us is mighty, if he work with God. " Without me 
ye can do nothing," saith the Saviour. "I can do 
all things through Christ's strengthening me," said 



188 , THE WAY TO WIN 

his apostle. If we think to be efficient causes of 
good ourselves, we shall be disappointed. If we 
are willing to be instruments in the hands of God, 
we can accomplish any thing he pleases, for the 
power will be his, not ours. The weaker, then, we 
feel ourselves to be, the better for our success, if 
we try to do good ; because God will put his strength 
in us, only as we put reliance upon our own strength 
out of us. 

Besides, God loves to work by weakness, that his 
power may be the more clearly seen. What is more 
feeble than a rod? yet a little rod in the hand 
of Moses rolled up a sea before his people, and 
brought down its waves again upon the chivalry of 
Egypt. It was not the rod, nor was it Moses; but 
the Lord Jehovah, who moved the hand of Moses 
when the appointed rod was in it. The hosts of 
the Philistines were strong, and Goliath, in his ar- 
mour of proof, was the strongest of the host; and 
yet a shepherd boy with a sling, and a few smooth 
stones from the brook, brought their champion to 
the dust, and scattered their thousands in death. 
But it was not the stripling David, nor his sling, 
nor the stone from the brook, but the Lord of 
hosts, who accomplished the victory. Do you de- 
sire to do good, my brother? Attempt it in the 
way God has appointed. But you are weak, poor, 



GOOD WAGES. 



189 



have no influence, no talent, nothing? Be it so. 
All God asks is your heart, your faith in him, your 
endeavour. Give those to him, and he will take 
care of the rest. You shall be successful and get 
your wages for it. 

We see from the text, that we are not to be dis- 
couraged, because the sphere, or the manner in 
which we are called to labour, is a humble one. 

We do not choose our lot; God assigns it; but he 
does expect that we will endeavour to do our duty 
in it, whatever it may be. God made Paul a master 
builder, and set him to laying the foundation of the 
church. He did not give Apollos the same work, 
but the apparently inferior one of carrying on the 
building thus skilfully begun. Yet was Paul only 
successful? Was he only rewarded? No, says the 
apostle, "he that planteth and he that watereth are 
one ; and every man shall receive his own reward 
according to his own labour." There are diversi- 
ties of operations, and so there are needed different 
workers; but there is one grand result; and each 
faithful workman contributes to that result, and 
shall rejoice in seeing the work of the Lord pros- 
per in his hands. Christ compares the church to a 
body, of which he is the Head. He sees for us the 
way in which we shall go and act ; he speaks for 
us to the Father, and hears his words of counsel, 



190 THE WAY TO WIN 

promise and command; he thinks for us, and di- 
rects our movement and exertion. All must begin 
and proceed from him. But then, as the apostle 
tells us, borrowing the fable of a Latin historian, 
the body has hands and feet. Each member has 
its office, and the heal thfuln ess and efficiency of the 
body must be found in the due exercise of all. 
" Shall the hand say to the foot I have no need of 
thee?" or the foot refuse to carry the hand to its 
work? So, our stations in the church are different; 
but our care should be, to do our duty, not to get 
higher places. If we only do good for the honour's 
sake, where is our duty to God? If we be willing 
to do our duty to God, we should be willing to do 
it where he bids us. Each in his place may contri- 
bute to the main success, and each shall share in 
the reward. Who is there among us, that has not 
an opportunity to do something ? We may not all 
be preachers; w r e may not all be rich; we may 
not all be people of worldly influence ; but we 
ought all to be Christ's followers, God's servants, 
and the friends of our fellow-men. I had rather 
have been that poor woman, who " did what she 
could" in anointing the Master for his burial, 
than Iscariot, who quarrelled with her expensive 
courtesy, though he then ranked among the apos- 
tles. The two humble Marys, who stood by the 



GOOD WAGES. 



191 



cross, and afterward went with their spices in 
the dark, damp morning to embalm the Saviour's 
body, had a vision of angels, and one of them the 
risen Lord's first words, instead of the eleven who 
fled and deserted the Man of sorrows. Ah! my 
friends, never repine at being called to work in a 
humble sphere. It is honour enough to serve Christ, 
and (oh! excellent above all honours) to be labour- 
ers together with God. God has a use for high 
hills, and he raises them; but the highest are the 
most barren and the coldest. The lowly vale is 
secluded, but it is fat and fertile. There the 
water-courses flow sweetly and freshly; the trees 
on their banks are strong and flourishing, and the 
lilies abound in the thick, green grass. God has de- 
clared himself to dwell in two places: the highest 
throne in the highest heaven is one; the humble 
heart, that trembleth at his word, is the other. 
(Isaiah Ivii. 15.) Let each of us pray: Father in 
heaven, make my heart humble, that thou mayest 
dwell with me on earth, until thou takest me to 
dwell with thee in heaven. 

One thought more : The faithful labourer must 
not despair of his reward, because he does not see 
his success now. 

Every man shall receive the reward but of his 
own labour (not of his own success). His reward 



192 THE WAY TO WIN 

shall be according to his zeal and industry. This 
truth flows from those we have been examining. 
For no man's success is his own. The success is 
God's. He gives the increase, and his is the glory 
of it. Our part is the doing of our duty. We do 
not deserve any reward for that; because, having 
done all, we are unprofitable servants. But God, for 
Christ's sake, is pleased to promise us a reward in 
seeing the glory of God ; and of this, if we be faith- 
ful, we are sure not to be disappointed. It is only 
they who labour for their own glory, who shall 
reap the wind. Where is our faith, if we can only 
work while we see ourselves successful? That is 
only sight, with which the Christian has nothing 
to do. It should stir us up to anxious labour if 
we do not see good done, but it is no reason why 
we should give up labour in despair. 

Besides, the labours of believers are so inter- 
mingled, that it is impossible to tell who is the pro- 
perly successful one. Indeed, success does not be- 
long to the solitary. The spinner of the flax 
does not despair, because she only forms thread. 
Another must lay the warp and ply the loom, be- 
fore the cloth can be perfected. Yet the thread 
must be spun first. Who makes the cloth? The 
spinner or the weaver? Both. Just so it is in the 
church of God. Had Abraham and the prophets 



GOOD WAGES. 



193 



no part in bringing about the kingdom of God, be- 
cause they entered their rest and their labours fol- 
lowed them, long before the fulness of time ? Had 
Eunice and Lois, who taught Timothy the Scrip- 
tures, when a little child at the knee, no share in 
the success of his ministry? Will the martyrs, 
who sowed the seed of the church in their blood, 
have no part in the final harvest ? The mighty re- 
formers, who battered down the walls of tyrant er- 
ror about the ears of wicked priests ; the studious 
scholars, who translated the Scriptures into the 
common tongue; the contemplative theologians, who 
like busy bees stored, in past centuries, the hives 
of the church with honey, upon which we now feed, 
and in the strength of which we now work, the Fla- 
vels, the Howes, the Baxters, the Barrows, the 
Leightons; have they no share in the glorious revi- 
vals, and the missionary zeal of the nineteenth cen- 
tury? Nay, my brethren, we do not doubt this. 
So it may be with us. One may plant, another 
may water, and one before them both may have 
broken up the fallow ground, and yet another 
may reap the harvest; but is the success only 
his who fills his bosom with the sheaves? The 
pious parent, who teaches her lisping babe; they, 
who sit unweariedly, Sabbath after Sabbath, like 
Charity in Raphael's picture, with their Sunday 
2 B 



194- THE WAY TO WIN GOOD WAGES. 

school children around them; the conscientious 
instructer, who seeks to infuse wisdom from above 
with the maxims of daily life into the hearts 
of his charge; the tract distributer, who goes 
forth scattering leaves from the tree of life on the 
winds of God's providence; the bed-ridden saint, 
who can only pray and suffer and hope; all are 
contributing to the great work, as well as he, who 
bids the penitent welcome to the supper of the 
Lord, or the angel, who bears upw T ard on rejoicing 
wings the immortal conqueror over death and sin. 

We may not see immediate success. There is 
ordinarily some space between the seed time and 
the harvest. But the day is coming, when the work 
of the Lord shall be complete, and every faithful 
servant be recognised by his Master, and his la- 
bours follow him. He that soweth, and he that 
watereth, and he that reapeth shall rejoice to- 
gether. They are all one, and every man shall re- 
ceive his own reward according to his own labour ; 
and oh ! beloved Master, to see thee on thy throne, 
worshipped by the countless shining ones of thy 
love, redeemed from sin and sorrow and death; 
yes, to be one of those who shall sing Hosannas at 
thy feet, will be reward enough ! 



SERMON X. 



LOVE OF HUMAN PRAISE, FATAL TO FAITH. 



LOVE OF HUMAN PRAISE, 



Joh:n~ v. -44. How can ye believe, which receive honour one 
of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only ? 

It is often a matter of astonishment, even to those 
who do not call themselves Christians., how the 
Jews who listened to our Lord's persuasive words, 
and saw his miraculous, merciful works, could have 
withheld their consent to doctrines so full of hope, 
adorned with a morality so pure, and confirmed by 
an example so perfect. "Vice," we are told by a 
common proverb, 

-is a monster of such horrid mien, 
That to be hated, needs but to be seen," 

How then could He. "the perfection of moral beau- 
ty." who lived in constant benefactions, excite such 
rancorous malice in the bosoms of those he sought 
to save, that they pursued him to the last ignominy 
and torture of a felon's death' The astonishment 



is increased when we see, that the chief actors in 
the horrid conspiracy, the leaders and agitators of 

cies. ~L\ Sr every z i^e leseidei :: ne neek and low- 
_T Land: :■: C-:d. and who claimed, hy their very 



LLti'jn.5 of 



ties in morals as great as any in physics. We 
cannot serve God and mammon; 97 and & " the friend- 
in if me world is enmitr with God." The keart 
mnot he a divided empire, and it is "with the 
eart man helieveth nnto righteousness." So long 
i i*ir diodes: aze:i::i. ne ize::::i ~non rile? 



ess elsewhere than in 
d ":e an zz wiiinrn es? 
is law and his Gospel. 



FATAL TO FAITH. 



199 



fatal to faith. It is not the lack of evidence, but 
the absence of a heart seriously to inquire and can- 
didly to weigh the evidence, which prevents men 
from being honest Christians and makes them prac- 
tical skeptics. Were a man heartily willing to 
live only for God, zealous in his efforts to keep 
himself in an entire virtue, and ardently de- 
sirous to reach a state of being where he could 
live in the Divine Presence without spot and of- 
fence, he would at once clasp the Gospel to his 
bosom with a delighted confidence, because he 
would see in it an adaptedness to the wants of his 
heart, which only God could give and apply; and 
would at once pronounce it a scheme as worthy of 
the holiness of God, as it is necessary and ele- 
vating to the soul of his creature. But he, whose 
pride will brook no such subjection, who is con- 
scious of no such pure desire, and looks no higher 
than earth, and no farther than time, for his happi- 
ness and his hope, will deafen his ears, if he can, 
against arguments which rebuke his selfishness 
and pronounce his doom; or, if he be forced to lis- 
ten, will hear with a biassed judgment and offended 
spirit. From the fall to this day, from Adam, who 
hid himself from the face of the Lord God among 
the trees of the Garden, to the unbeliever who lis- 
tens with a careless heart to this sermon, " Every 



LOVE OF HOI AX PRAISE. 



one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh 
to the light lest his deeds should be reproved :" and 
••this is the condemnation" of us all. until we be- 
come children of God in Jesus Christ, " that light." 
the light of truth, the light of holiness, the light of 
mercy, the light of virtuous hope, "'has come into 
the world, and men love darkness rather than light, 
because their deeds are evil." Hence the necessity 
of that entire change of the heart, which the Scrip- 
tures call a new birth, the acquiring of a new na- 
ture, before we can enter by faith into the kingdom 
of God. 

One form of this evil influence so fatal to faith, 
our Saviour describes in our holy text. The Pha- 
risees were enraged against him for the strange 
crime of healing a poor paralytic on the Sabbath 
day: but their rage rose to madness, when he de- 
clared that he was working his Father's will with 
the power of God. They were ready to put him to 
death because he proved that he was the Son of 
God by an act of miraculous mercy, which nothing 
less than divine power could have performed. So 
true is it. that when men are determined to And 
fault, they never lack a pretext ; and that there are 
none so skeptical of goodness as those who are hy- 
pocritical boasters of their own morality. Our Sa- 
viour flings back the charge in their false faces. 



FATAL TO FAITH. 



201 



He shows them, that, if they truly believed in God, 
they could never doubt such mercy and such power. 
Then, as with a two-edged sword, he pierces to the 
malice rankling in their bosoms, and says, "I know 
ye, that ye have not the love of God in you. I am 
come in my Father's name," with the manifest proofs 
of my Father's approbation, "and ye receive me 
not. If another come, in his own name," one, like 
yourselves, pleasing your pride with a less holy 
doctrine, "him ye will receive. 

"How can ye believe, which receive honour one 
of another, and seek not the honour that cometh 
from God only?" 

The doctrine is plain. No man can believe in 
Christ, who, for the sake of praise from men, ne- 
glects to secure the approbation of his God. 

Let me guard the proposition from being misun- 
derstood. The Master does not mean to say, that a 
Christian may take no pains to have a good charac- 
ter in the world. On the contrary, in another 
place, he calls his true disciples, "lights of the 
world," bidding them "let their light so shine 
before men, that they, seeing their good works, 
may glorify their Father who is in heaven;" and 
Paul commands in his Lord's name, that we 
"let not our good be evil spoken of," and "avoid 
the very appearance of evil." Christian character 



202 LOVE OF HUMAN PRAISE, 

has taken the place of natural miracles in proving 
the moral power of religion. The Christian should 
guard his character as not his own, but the testi- 
mony and property of Jesus Christ; and foul guilt 
rests upon those who, from envy, or malice, or idle 
tattling, mar the fair fame, and so hinder the use- 
fulness, of any child of God. They become one 
with the devil in the loathsome office of accusing 
the brethren and the saints of the Most High. 
Our Saviour here means to say, that the approba- 
tion of God should be our first care; and the 
praise of men sought only while obedient to his 
will. Though all the world should hiss and scoff, 
we are to hold fast our integrity in the sight of 
Him, who knoweth the heart and meteth out un- 
failing justice. 

We cannot believe, if we seek the praise of men 
rather than of God, because, 

First : In so doing we forget God. 

The first idea of religion and the fundamental 
article of belief, is the existence of God; but to be 
practical, it must carry with it a sense of responsi- 
bility. We might as well have no God, so far as 
morals are concerned, if he take no note of our 
conduct, and award neither punishment nor re- 
ward. The character of God is revealed to us in 
his word and his works, especially in the word and 



FATAL TO FAITH. 



203 



work of redemption, that we may intelligently adore 
him, and, knowing what he is, know what he would 
have us to he. Thus we find the chief source of 
exalted piety, in all ages, to he a living sense of the 
Divine Presence. "Enoch walked with God." 
Abraham was "the Friend of God." Joseph dared 
not do evil "and sin against God." Moses endured 
"as seeing Him who is invisible." David, in his 
better hours, "set the Lord ever before him;" and 
the apostle Peter applies the same rule of life to Da- 
vid's Lord. Paul exhorts, that " Christ should dwell 
in our hearts by faith;" and another apostle, that 
"we sanctify the 'Lord God in our hearts." The 
effect of this is three-fold : the thought of God's 
terrible majesty awes us into constant submission; 
the contemplation of the divine character fills the 
soul with images of holy beauty and truth; the 
remembrance of divine goodness and mercy awa- 
kens us to gratitude and love. 

All this restraining, transforming, and elevating 
influence ceases, when the idea of God is absent 
from the mind. We become for the time practical 
atheists, setting up idols before us, and at heart 
putting our trust in creatures to the dishonour of 
the Creator. How true is this of us, when we seek 
the praise of men? The eye cannot be fixed at 
once upon them and on heaven. We cannot watch 



204 LOVE OF HUMAN PRAISE, 

their faces to read their favour or dislike, and at 
the same time regard the face of our heavenly 
Father. We study their characters that we may 
flatter their weak pretensions, and low, contami- 
nating images displace the perfect idea of divine 
purity. We consult their opinions that we may 
seem to accord with them, and the dark but ever- 
shifting shades of human error obscure the holy 
rectitude of divine law. We dread their censure 
or court their smiles, and the false tribunal of 
worldly opinion rises between us and the eternal 
judgment. We dare not pray for heavenly guidance, 
lest we should be astray from the path of prefer- 
ment, and bring upon us the sneer of knaves or the 
laugh of fools. We live for our own honour, not 
the glory of Him who made us, and invites us to 
himself. With such cares, such hopes, such aims, 
how can we believe in Christ, whose kingdom is 
not of this world? How can we hold fellowship 
with him, "the despised and rejected of men ?" How 
can we share his spirit who was " meek and lowly in 
heart?" How can we live like him, who was "holy, 
harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners?" 
How can it be our meat and drink to do the will of 
our Father? How can we make life a pilgrimage 
to the rewards of heaven, and hope to share the 



FATAL TO FAITH. 



205 



glory of that noble throng, who, out of great tribu- 
lation for the sake of Christ, rose upon angels' 
wings, to wear the crown of victory over tempta- 
tion? Nay, my brethren, faith is a victory over 
the world, and has no kindred with that mean am- 
bition, which can stoop from the hopes of immor- 
tal life, to win the honours of this. 

Secondly: The praise of men is rarely won ex- 
cept by practices adverse to the law of God, which 
is the rule of a believer's life. 

I say, rarely. There are occasions, when the pub- 
lic necessity manifestly requires some noble and ge- 
nerous spirit to rise above the petty suggestions of 
private interest; when the people feel, that nothing 
less than the divinity of virtue can save them, and 
the same sense of danger, which makes a drowning 
blasphemer pray, bids them call upon the servants of 
God. Then, when true virtue comes forth from her 
modest retreat, to cheer their sinking hopes and re- 
store their perilled safety, will the acclamations of 
the multitude be long and loud. But the moment 
the danger has passed by, the good man is forgotten 
in the flatteries of the demagogue, and perchance 
hissed away from the station, that makes the re- 
proach of his virtue too conspicuous, and the re- 
straint of his example too strong. The just man 



20i) LOVE OF HUMAN PRAISE, 

is banished, because he is so just; and they are 
glad that Cincinnatus has gone back to his 
plough. 

Ordinarily, the world insists upon our conformity 
to them as the price of their favours. They set 
their affections upon earthly objects, and, however 
false their hopes of happiness may be from them, 
they frame an ingenious sophistry, and construct 
plausible maxims to confirm the errors of their 
hearts. Wo to him then who interferes with their 
plans, and attempts to dissipate their delusions ! 
Yet, notwithstanding all, they would fain have the 
name of propriety, and, if possible, of religion. 
They " call evil good, and good evil." Wide- 
spreading dishonesties, in which many are parties, 
are denominated necessities of business; bloody 
revenge and bullying bravado is called honour; 
compromises of principle, praiseworthy sacrifices 
of private opinion; idle frivolities, rational amuse- 
ment; relaxation of religious morals, liberal cha- 
rity to human weaknesses. While, on the other 
hand, stern integrity and cautious honesty is smiled 
at as behind the age; meekness or forbearance is 
cowardice; steadfastness, bigotry; piety, cant and 
hypocrisy; self-denial, superstition; and rebuke of 
crime, pragmatical censoriousness. Each flatters 
and cajoles his neighbour, and is flattered and ca- 



FATAL TO FAITH. 



207 



joled in turn. They draw a circle around them, 
over which no adverse principle is allowed to 
pass. Religion may do very well in church on a 
Sunday, hut what business has it in the hall-room 
or the festival? Decency must be observed in com- 
mon conversation, but it is beyond all usage to ex- 
pect it on the stage. The love of our neighbour 
as ourselves, and doing to others as we would have 
them do to us, was surely never meant to forbid a 
sharp bargain or a usurious profit out of a neigh- 
bour's difficulties. Charity owes her dollar to the 
plate, or a sixpence to the beggar, pays the debt 
with complacency, and looks around for applause. 

Can it then be expected, that when faith comes 
into such a sphere, bidding men prepare to meet 
their God, pointing to a stern judgment, a near 
eternity, a holy heaven, and a deserved hell, that 
she will be welcome ? Can it be, that stern truth, 
when it tears off the mask from dissembling self, 
and shows vice her painted mien in the clear mir- 
ror of God's word, will meet with applauses? Can 
it be, that Christian consistency, with the cross on 
her breast, her eye on heaven, her garments girded 
with God's love, and her feet sandaled with the 
preparation of peace, will put to shame the gauds 
of fashion, and the pomps of pretending artifice, 
and rouse no angry reproaches ? 



208 LOVE OF HUMAN PRAISE, 

— Crucified Jesus, tortured apostles, martyred 
prophets, reviled confessors, when did ye find that 
friendship with God was friendship with the world? 
Many, who find it fashionable to praise your distant 
virtue, and to adorn your shrines, would, if ye were 
again among us, erect your cross, heap the faggots 
around your stake, and fire the pile. — The cross is 
yet the tree of reproach, and he, who would by faith 
share in the atonement of his Master's death, must 
expect to share its shame. So certain is this, that 
Jesus has left the record, " Blessed are ye when 
men revile you, and persecute you, and say all man- 
ner of evil against you falsely for my sake." The 
reproach of the world is the baptism of Jesus, the 
badge of the apostle, and the budding honour of the 
saint. He who walks with the world must walk 
the broad way, for but few are found in the narrow 
path of life. "If ye were of the world, the world 
would love his own : but because ye are not of the 
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, the 
world hateth you." "Be not conformed to the 
world, but be ye transformed in the renewing of 
your minds, that ye may prove what is that good, 
and acceptable, and holy will of God." How, then, 
can those believe, who love the praise of men rather 
than that of God? 

Thirdly : The praise of men prevents that sense 



FATAL TO FAIT1J. 



209 



of sin and unworthiness, which prepares us to be- 
lieve in the Saviour of sinners. 

Thus the more successful we are in winning the 
praise of the world, the greater are the hindrances 
of our faith. It is not until the law of God has ap- 
plied its test to our hearts, that all the corruption 
of our nature is made to appear, and we feel the 
need of the Great Physician; nor, until the displea- 
sure and wrath of God is made certain to our ap- 
prehension, that we will escape for refuge to the 
hope set before us. The heart is deceitful enough 
of itself, and we are but too loath at any time to 
judge ourselves strictly, and too willing to award 
ourselves praise, or frame self-excuses. It is only 
in honest solitude, when the presence of God is 
felt, and the word of life is burning before us, that 
we can at all see ourselves as we ought. The ex- 
citement of public engagements ever produces a 
moral delirium, and sways the mental balance; 
therefore it is, that the guilty hate to be alone, and 
the truly pious love to wash the wings of their spi- 
rit in the deep recess where the waters of life flow 
clearly, and reveal to them the stains they are ready 
to wash away. 

But, when the flatteries of our own hearts are 
more than confirmed by an acclaiming crowd ; 
when our misgivings of our virtue are drowned in 
2 D 



210 LOVE OF HUMAN PRAISE. 

general approbation; when many friends crowd 
around os to keep the voice of rebuke from our 
ear : wnen tnev nurrv us from scene to scene of 
gr armed vanity : when even our solitude is broken 
in upon by distant echoes of our good report, and 
recollections of our triumphs, then it is that the 
tempter, the prince of this world, whispers most 
eloquently: "Ye shall not surely die. It cannot 
be that you. whom the world calls so good, so vir- 
tuous, so amiable, can be so stained with crime, 
that nothing but the blood of Jesus can wash it 
away. It cannot be that the head, thought worthy 
of so manv honours in life, will sink beneath the 
food of everlasting shame and contempt in the 
world to come." Then it is that the sinner hopes 
to pluck the forbidden fruit without punishment, 
and be a very God unto himself. Then we are 
prone to thrust aside religion as needful only to the 
poor, the outcast, and the criminal: hut as unneces- 
sary to the dignity of our position, the refinement 
of our manners, and the range of oar intellects. 
How can the idol of the world consent to doff the 
robes of pride to put on the sackcloth of repent- 
ance or leave the circle of admiring friends to 
kneel around the same cross with publicans and 
sinners ''. How can such weights of pleasing pre- 
ferment be laid aside to pass through the strait 



FATAL TO FAITH. 



211 



gate, and run, with patience, the race along the 
narrow and thorny way that leadeth unto life? 
How can he remember, that he is but a pilgrim to 
whom life should be as a desert, and transfer his 
affections to the better world, where all honour is 
God's gift, and honour granted only to him who 
has taken up the cross and followed Jesus? How 
hardly can he enter the kingdom of God ? How 
can he believe, who has sought and won the praise 
of men? What a pitch of courage, far beyond mor- 
tal reach, to rise above all these evils and lay hold 
on spiritual life ? Great God ! with thy help it is 
possible ; but with man it is impossible ! O try us 
not with the praise of men, except thou be near us, 
Son of the highest, in the midst of the fire ! 

My hearers, forget not that you are in a world of 
delusions, where the evil one walks often like an 
angel of light; where the prince of the power of 
the air amuses and deludes with strange but fasci- 
nating phantasies; where tinsel glitters like pure 
gold, and the mists of earth seem like substantial 
things. O remember, that there is nothing true but 
God and his Christ, the word of his will, and the 
retributions of eternity! There is a world, and we 
are all rapidly approaching it, to which death will 
ravish us, having stripped us first of all we have 
acquired here, even of these bodies we have loved 



212 LOVE OF HUMAN PRAISE, 

to adorn and indulge. Alone, each of us must stand 
before the searching eye of the Pure and Holy. 
Then neither wealth, nor fame, nor honours, can 
avail us. Then the servant of the world shall look 
in vain for the help of his master. Then nothing 
can save, but a faith in Christ begun in life, and 
held firmly unto the last agony. Then shall He be 
ashamed of those who were ashamed of him, and 
His word, " Depart ye cursed," send away to shame 
and everlasting contempt, all who loved the praise 
of men more than the praise of God. 

Professors of Christ! do our feet stand sure? 
Are our garments unspotted from the world? Are 
we ready, having shaken its dust from our feet, to 
enter into the immediate presence of the Holy One? 
Alas ! Alas ! Does not the love of human praise min- 
gle too freely with our best services? Does not its 
approval sometimes make our charities, our labours, 
sweeter than the blessing of God? Does not its 
sneer sometimes fright us from honest duty? Does 
not its blandishment often lead us into forbidden 
paths? Remember, remember, that the more we 
love the world, the less we have of a true faith, the 
less assurance of eternal joy. The more the world 
applauds, the greater is our peril. O then, let us 
keep the love of God in our hearts, our eye upon 
heaven! Let us meditate on our Saviour's cross, 



FATAL TO FAITH. 



213 



and our Saviour's crown. Let prayer keep the 
Holy Ghost always near us, and a sense of danger 
and weakness make us cling to his almighty arm. 

My hearers, let not your hearts deceive you. 
You cannot choose the world and God both. You 
cannot seek with the same heart honour from the 
world and honour from him. You cannot have 
your treasure in heaven and your hearts here. You 
must make your choice. Take the world and eter- 
nal death; or take Christ and eternal life. Never, 
never will ye believe, never can ye believe, until, 
postponing all else, you " seek first the kingdom 
of God and his righteousness." 



SERMON XI. 



THE DIGNITY OF SERVING. 



THE DIGNITY OF SERVING. 



Mark x. 44. Whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be 
servant of all. 

A desire of honour and advancement is natural 
to man. His expansive powers suggest it, and the 
divine word gives it an indubitable sanction. God 
proposed such rewards for obedience in Eden, and 
the promises of the Gospel renew the motive. The 
crown, which man lost by the fall of Adam, is more 
than restored to the believer, by the coronation of 
Jesus, the second Adam, with glory and honour. 
(Heb. ii. 6-9.) All, who share in the kingdom and 
patience of Jesus Christ on earth, shall be kings 
and priests unto God in heaven ; their robes shall 
have an excelling lustre, and their distinction be 
peculiar as those whom the King of kings delight- 
eth to honour. Even among the redeemed there 
will be gradations of rank ; for the martyrs shall 
stand nearest the throne, the wise shall shine as 



218 THE DIGNITY OF SERVING. 

the brightness of the firmament, but they that turn 
many to righteousness, like the stars forever and 
ever. (Daniel xii. 3.) Christianity, so far from for- 
bidding ambition and a love of praise, uses them 
as strong helps and incentives to virtue. It is only 
when wrongly aimed, that these powerful passions 
are sinful and hurtful. 

But the departure of the human heart from God. 
is plainly seen in the false notion men have of 
greatness. Those are thought to be great, who 
are able to command or purchase the service of 
many others, and honourable titles are freely 
awarded to them by a selfish world : while those 
whose necessities force them to serve, are looked 
down upon as inferior, if not as degraded. Hence, 
a lust of power, in some form or other, is so gene- 
ral, that no one is supposed to be free from it. 
The scholar, in toiling for fame, really seeks the 
influence which fame secures : and wealth would 
not be reckoned worth the cost of earning it. if it 
were not the price of a similar elevation. The 
kindness of charity, the generosity of public spirit, 
and (there is too much reason to fear,) the purity 
of religion, are often counterfeited for the same 
end. A Caesar or Napoleon differs only in extent 
of theatre, from the rustic, who aspires to be "the 
best wrestler on the village green;" and the poli- 



THE DIGNITY OF SERVING. 



219 



tician, who intrigues for office, is but a slight re- 
move from the silly struggler after fashionable no- 
toriety. It is not to be denied, that this disposi- 
tion to self-aggrandizement, though the fruitful 
cause of civil discords, bloody wars, political cor- 
ruptions, bitter envyings and private feuds, has 
prompted many deeds, ostensibly noble, and really 
useful; but the Scripture condemns it, as at utter 
variance with godliness, because, the true standard 
of excellence being the will of God, our ambition 
should be to gain his approval, and our honour 
sought in the advancement of his glory. Thus our 
Lord demanded of the Pharisees, "How can ye 
believe, which receive honour one of another, and 
seek not the honour which cometh from God only?" 
(John v. 44.) 

This pernicious leaven was early at work among 
the little band of our Lord's nearest disciples. 
In the connexion of our text, the evangelist tells 
us, that James and John asked of the Master to 
have places, the one on his right hand, the other 
on his left, in his glory; and it was at once to con- 
demn, emphatically, a lust for ecclesiastical prefer- 
ment, which has since wrought such wide-spread 
mischiefs, as grossly inconsistent with the lowly 
benevolence of his Gospel ; and to declare attempts 
at lordships over his heritage, treasonable against 



220 THE DIGNITY OF SERVING. 

the rights of his kingdom, that he gave them the 
answer: "Whosoever will be great among you. 
shall be your minister, and whosoever of you will 
be the chiefest, shall be the servant of all. Even 
as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, 
but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for 
many." The same lesson was given by him, the 
evangelist Luke informs us, at the Last Supper, 
when there arose a strife among them which should 
be accounted the greatest. a The kings of the 
Gentiles," said he, " exercise lordship over them, 
and they that exercise authority upon them are 
called benefactors (the title of the Ptolemies, as 
some modern monarchs are called "most gracious," 
"most clement," "most serene,"): but ye shall not 
be so : but he that is greatest among you, let him 
be as the younger, and he that is chief as he that 

doth serve I am among you as he that 

serveth." (xxii. 24-27.) 

The proposition before us, therefore, is that 
Dignity lies in serving. 

" Whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be 
servant of all;" or rather, "Whosoever among you 
would be chiefest, let him be the servant of all." 
In other words : He, who serves most faithfully 
his fellow-men, from the fear and love of God, shall 
be most honourable in His sight. 



THE DIGNITY OF SERVING. 221 

The truth of this will be made clear by several 
considerations. 

First : It is according to the economy of nature. 

It would be an impeachment of the Divine wis- 
dom and power, to suppose that God has made any 
thing in vain. The slightest study of his works 
should convince us. that usefulness is the Creator's 
great design. That this usefulness may not. in all 
cases be seen by us. proves only the weakness of 
our perceptions ; and what seems immediately hurt- 
ful, such as disease or suffering, is manifestly only 
a modification of the original system, because of 
some subsequent circumstances, declared in Scrip- 
ture to be violations of fundamental laws by the 
free, intelligent creature. 

Every fresh investigation of science, confirms 
and illustrates this doctrine. However we may, 
for the sake of convenience, distinguish several 
kingdoms in nature, there is in reality but one. 
The laws of all are radically the same. They are 
mutually dependent upon and contributive to eacb 
other. Each has its relative offices, and all unite 
for one grand result, Xature is everywhere busy, 
in the air, the sea. the soil, the mine, the animal 
frame. Labour is the irresistible law: inactivity 
a violation of it. that cannot occur. Labour is ne- 
cessary to production: what seems to be rest, is a 



ZZZ THE DIGNITY OF SERVING. 

recuperative force repairing the faculties of labour : 
and ; instant upon stagnation, is the energy of cor- 
ruption directed to future utility. We estimate the 
value of a thing by its usefulness. No one gathers 
thistle-down, or ploughs barren sands. Gold and 
silver, and gems, are called precious, because, added 
to their great utility in the arts, they have a real 
value as convenient representatives of things really 
useful, which they ordinarily will purchase. True 
wealth consists of commodities, things necessary or 
contributive to comfort : an assertion of political 
economy which no one would doubt who should 
find himself in a burning desert, without food, or 
water, or shelter, though surrounded by all the 
glitter of an Indian treasury. The sun we are ac- 
customed to regard as the most noble of God's phy- 
sical creatures, because his influences are the most 
extensive and salutary. 

Nor is the pleasing variety of form, and hue, and 
sound, and taste, and odour, an exception to the 
rule ; for, besides the delight it yields to the senses 
(a sufficient reason for the kindness of God), it is 
most useful to distinguish between various objects, 
and incite us to employ them according to their 
ends. What confusion would ensue, if all sub- 
stances had the same colour, the same shape, the 
same flavour, the same tone ? How should we know 



THE DIGNITY OF SERVING. 



223 



the beloved from strangers, the nourishing from the 
pernicious, the thing we need from the things we 
need not? Experience has demonstrated a close 
relation between the graceful and the useful. The 
stream wanders widely in gentle ever-varying curves, 
that it may more widely diffuse its genial influences, 
or offer its flowing bosom to the assistance of man. 
The abounding verdure is a refreshment to the eye 
which it charms, and light (beautiful, most beauti- 
ful light!) pours out itself to bless, to gladden, and 
to heal. The aroma of plants sweeten an atmos- 
phere that else were noisome, while the vulture 
scents from afar the decay it is his mission to re- 
move. There is not a vibration of the air to a 
voice of nature, but makes part of a profound har- 
mony, arranged by infinite skill, if we use it aright, 
to cheer the heart, refine the mind, and uplift the 
soul in aspirations of praise to that world, where a 
chorus, whom no man can number, strike the harp 
and swell the voice with diapasons full, unceasing, 
and of perfect joy. 

Is man, because endowed with reason and will, 
exempt from the general law? Has he been made 
for himself alone? Is he more than God to receive 
from all, and to give nothing? 

The circumstances in which we find ourselves 
deny it. Who can be happy alone? What is so- 



224 THE DIGNITY OF SERVING 

ciety but an interchange of reciprocal benefits? 
What are laws but regulations to restrain us from 
violating this grand law of mutual dependence ? 
What makes friendship, and the dearer ties which 
bind human hearts together, so precious, but this 
necessity of interchanging kindnesses ? Which then 
should be put highest in the scale, the man, who 
draws in upon his stagnant self, means of a wide 
usefulness, to be converted into foul elements of 
pride and luxury; or he, who, like a fountain opened 
by the voice of God, sheds streams of usefulness to 
fertilize the world with happiness? Who but the 
useful is the most honourable? Even heathen wis- 
dom knew this, for their ablest moralist taught that 
none were such pests to society, as those who 
sought for the honourable elsewhere than in the 
useful. " Whoso would be greatest among you, let 
him serve." 

This leads to a second consideration ; 

It is according to the best judgment of mankind. 

By the best judgment of mankind, we do not 
mean the opinion they form of their own present 
conduct or that of their contemporaries, which is 
likely to be biassed by self, distorted by envy, and 
dazzled by glitter; but that which we hold when 
the delusive circumstances have passed away, or 
which posterity pronounces after time has applied 



THE DIGNITY OF SERVING. 225 

its searching test. Which awakens the warmest 
glow of admiration, the memory of the powerful, 
or the memory of the good? The memory of So- 
crates, or the memory of Alexander? Do we not 
all feel that the greatest triumph of the Macedo- 
nian, like that of Scipio, was in the hour when he 
subdued a luxurious passion to the dictates of a 
chaste clemency? If there be a memorial, which 
diminishes our contempt for the utter selfishness of 
him, who waded to power through the blood of 
Europe, offering ten thousand hecatombs of human 
victims to his gigantic vanity, and, among them, 
the fondest, most trusting heart that ever beat for 
a husband's honour; it will be found along those 
roads which levelled the Alps to the foot of the 
humblest wayfarer, and lead him, when bewildered 
or storm-beaten, to safe refuges among the perpe- 
tual snows. What gives such pure and steady lus- 
tre to the character of him, whom we love to call 
the Father of our country, but the admirable con- 
centration and devotion of all his powers to mighty 
usefulness? What is it we delight most to recall 
of our friends who are dead ? Is it, that they fared 
sumptuously, kept gay equipages, or indulged them- 
selves in easy luxury? Do we not rather search 
for every instance of their goodness, their charity, 
or their usefulness? What record is it that we 
2 F 



226 THE DIGNITY OF SERVING. 

write upon their tombs ? No matter how rich or 
powerful they may have been, or what titles of rank 
they may have won,, if we cannot speak of some 
kindly sympathy for their fellow-men, how cold and 
vain does the inscription seem ? In our sober judg- 
ment we recognise the principle of the text as true, 
and reason unites with revelation when it says, 
" Whosoever would be chiefest, let him be the ser- 
vant of all." 

We pass to a third consideration, immeasurably 
stronger : 

It is according: to the perfection of God himself. 

" God is love," says the apostle. The nature of 
love is diffusive, and it is the glory of the Divine 
Being to diffuse himself. Creation is the diffusion 
of his power, his wisdom, and his goodness, Pro- 
vidence is the constant exercise of those attributes, 
which constitute the character of God. Intelli- 
gence in all its varied orders is the production of 
his will ; and those laws, which define the way 
of life, with their awful sanctions to warn us from 
danger and persuade us to happiness, are evidences 
of his loving care which would make us like to 
Himself, that we might receive the blessings of his 
children. They are the rivers of his pleasures, 
flowing forth from Him the ever blessed Fountain, 
that the spirit of the obedient may partake and be 



THE DIGNITY OF SERVING. 



221 



satisfied. This universal care and bountiful kind- 
ness give to God that glory, which makes him the 
object of our adoration and trust. In its sense of 
inferiority, service cannot be predicated of God; 
but in its sense of usefulness, God is, emphatically, 
the servant of all. He thinks for all and works for 
all. It does not sink, but exalt him, to provide for 
the wants of every thing that liveth. The insect, 
which lives its little hour, and finds the food for 
its brief life prepared by the hand of its Crea- 
tor, shows his greatness more than the vastest of 
his inanimate creatures. Before his omniscience 
we may wonder, before his omnipotence we may 
tremble; but when we contemplate his goodness, 
and feel around us and beneath us his upholding 
arms, we love and trust Him. If to be like God, 
the source of all glory and the distributer of all 
honours, be glorious and honourable ; who so like 
him, as the man that lives only to diffuse himself in 
works of usefulness, setting no limits to his benefi- 
cence, but those which God has set to his ability? 
Who so unlike him, as the man that lives only for 
himself, and prides himself upon making others 
contribute to his ease, luxury or importance ? How 
can the service of our fellow-creatures be other- 
wise than most honourable, when God makes it his 
glory to do good to the meanest of us all ? 



22S THE DIGNITY OF SERVING. 

This is especially shown in the plan of redemp- 
tion. Though we had forfeited all claim upon the 
goodness of God, and his justice made our condem- 
nation necessary, what wisdom, power and mercy 
he has displayed in providing a method by which 
our salvation may be consistent with his law? It 
was his thought from eternity, and, in the fulness 
of time, he spared not his own Son, but delivered 
him up for lost sinners, to take away their humilia- 
tion by his own, to work out their righteousness, 
and endure their punishment, that he might open for 
them a new and living way to the throne of their 
reconciled Judge and Father. His almighty Spirit 
is sent to renew our fallen souls, and to become a 
suppliant with us, that we should accept the gift of 
life ; and, throughout eternity, the same power and 
grace will be employed in rewarding and glorifying 
all penitent souls with heavenly bliss. 

" O why should heavenly God for men have such regard ;" 

if it be not an honour worthy of God to do good? 
It is true that the Gospel glorifies God more than 
all his other works ; but the glory is in the good 
accomplished for sinners. How can we approach 
his character more nearly than in spreading that 
Gospel, and working together with him for the 



THE DIGNITY OF SERVING. 



229 



present and eternal good of our race? "Whoso 
would be chiefest, let him be the servant of all." 

Fourthly: It is according to the example of 
Jesus Christ. 

"For the Son of Man came not to be ministered 
unto, but to minister." He was on earth as one 
that did "serve." 

Christ is the revelation of God in mercy; but he 
is also the pattern of man in perfection. He came 
to accomplish our redemption by his death, but 
also to direct us in a return to holiness by his life. 
He was God in man, that we might learn from him 
how man can be like God. What was his example? 
He brought all the resources of his Godhead, and 
all the offices of his Sonship, to bear upon his great 
work of doing good to man. Were his riches ho- 
nourable? "He became poor, that we through his 
poverty might be made rich." Was his power ho- 
nourable? He became mighty to save. Was his 
wisdom honourable? He takes "of the things of 
the Father, and shows them unto us." The Holy 
Ghost has summed up his matchless character in 
few but strong words : " Jesus of Nazareth, who 
went about doing good." For human rank and ho- 
nours, he cared nothing, but took his lot among 
the lowliest of men, and found his constant occupa- 
tion in ministering to every want of all that ap- 



230 THE DIGNITY OF SERVING. 

proached him. He rebuked with stern boldness, the 
exclusiveness of the pharisee, and the oppression 
of the powerful, but his mercy went freely forth, 
from lips and hands, and even the hem of his gar- 
ment, to every sinful sufferer that knelt at his feet. 
None so wretched or so despised, but he was ready 
to serve them with his almighty grace. He was the 
servant of all. He came not to be ministered unto, 
but to minister. Oh ! what contempt does the life 
of Jesus pour upon those, who pride themselves 
upon a useless wealth, and covet empty honours, 
while they look down with scornful neglect upon 
the poor, the stranger, and the ignorant, that need 
their help ! If Jesus Christ be their Judge, ever- 
lasting shame must be their portion in that honest 
world, when the cloakings of hypocrisy shall be 
torn from every soul, which has pretended to dig- 
nity, yet practised no goodness. They can have 
no place among the angels, who are all ministering 
spirits to the objects of divine mercy; nor among 
the glorified saints, who followed Jesus, and whose 
works do follow them within the presence of their 
Father. They must depart from the holy and 
the good, to find a miserable companionship in 
suffering with the wicked and the vile; for those, 
who do no good, must share the punishment of 
those who do evil. If we would partake of Christ's 



THE DIGNITY OF SERVING. 



231 



glory, we must partake of his work ; and he was 
the servant of all. He took upon him the form of 
a servant, because the office of a servant was the 
most honourable office of man. Less than the 
most noble station, the Son of God and the Son 
of Man could not choose. He found it in doing 
good. Therefore, because he humbled himself and 
became obedient until death, even the death of the 
cross, as a servant, for man's sake and the praise 
of his Father, God has highly exalted him, and 
given him a name above every name, to prove by 
the most sublime example, that " Whosoever would 
be chiefest, must be the servant of all." 

The doctrine of the text should remind us, that 
we are not our own, but belong to God, our Crea- 
tor, and to Jesus Christ, our faithful Saviour. 

God made us for his own glory, and Christ has 
redeemed us for a yet higher accomplishment of the 
same end. Our place is that of servants, by na- 
ture and by grace. God has given us faculties with 
which to serve, the Gospel calls us to our work, 
and, by our profession, we acknowledge the duty 
to be our privilege. The only question that re- 
mains, is, How are we to serve? and that is an- 
swered by our Saviour's word and life. He, who 
has an acknowledged right to all our services, com- 
mands us to serve our fellow-men, and shows how 



232 THE DIGNITY OF SERVING. 

highly he estimates the work, by serving them him- 
self. All we are is his, all we have has been en- 
trusted to us by him, as stewards for his honour. 
To withhold, to pervert to selfish uses, not to cir- 
culate widely that it may return with a rich interest 
of praise to our Lord, any faculty of serving our 
fellow-men in the best things, is unfaithfulness to 
him, which he will not fail to rebuke and punish. 

It is not their claims upon us, but his, that we 
are to consider. By his love to us, our service to 
them is to be measured. Examine, therefore, your 
means of doing good, my fellow-servant. Number 
your days, and think how short a time you have to 
live. There is not a dollar, not an hour of them 
your own. They all belong to Christ ; and he has 
assigned the trust for a specific purpose, the good 
of the world. Are you ready with your account ? 
Could you say, if you were now before his judg- 
ment seat, There, Lord, thou hast thine own, care- 
fully used and made profitable by a faithful in- 
dustry. 

We should be careful to judge ourselves by the 
rule, according to which God will judge us. 

With him there is no respect of persons. The 
petty differences of rank, riches or wisdom that ob- 
tain here, are as nothing to that far height from 
which he looks down upon us; but every act of 



THE DIGNITY OF SERVING. 



233 



goodness or of wrong done to his creatures, reaches 
him at once. The genius which dazzles, the posi- 
tion which awes, or the pretences which deceive hu- 
man eyes so often, avail not to hide the heart from 
him. He looks only at the inward principle with 
the outward fruits; and the worldly advantages 
which here hide, palliate, excuse, or give impunity 
to crime, only increase his condemnation of the sin- 
ner. If the present judgment of society were like 
His, how changed the aspect of the world would 
be? How many, before whom we now uncap as 
to our most respectable and distinguished citizens, 
would be hissed in the pillory of public contempt? 
How many a wretch, whose very birth consigned 
him to associations with vice, would put to shame 
some to whom we give titles as honourable and ex- 
cellent? Let me sketch an illustration. 

— Here is a man, to whom God has given a power- 
ful mind. Every door of knowledge has been open 
to him from his most early years. His fellow-citi- 
zens have sought the aid of his talents, and made 
him rich. They have raised him to office, and 
made him great. His manners are courteous, and 
fashion natters him. He adds to all this the grace- 
ful decency of a well-bred religion, and the church 
solicits his championship. But his heart is cold. 
He has no fellow-feeling for man as man. He 
2 G 



234 THE DIGNITY OF SERVING. 

grows in wealth, reputation and influence, only to 
congratulate himself upon his success. The god 
he worships, the world he serves, is his own self. 
On a Sunday morning he drives from church, and 
at the door of his broad mansion he is looked up to 
by a shivering outcast child, begging for a crumb 
from his table, scarcely daring to hope for a kind 
word from his lips. It is an orphan boy, who has 
no friend to tell him that there is a God or a path 
of virtue, and no shelter but among the vile. There 
may be within that squalid raggedness a mild, lov- 
ing heart, a resolute courage, and a determined will, 
with a generous wish to upraise himself. But the 
man, who might, by the blessing of God, make him 
a useful, conscience-guided Christian, spurns him 
away without a farther thought. Years roll on, 
and that neglected little one grows up (how could 
it be otherwise?) a thief and a felon. 

Now, tell me, which will stand fairest before 
God in that day, when he will reckon the omission 
to do good by those who had the knowledge and 
opportunity, as most aggravated iniquity? Which 
is most guilty of crime, the felon, or the selfish 
contemner of a young immortal soul? Far rather 
would I be that wretched child, with all the conse- 
quences of his untutored life, than the rich, power- 
ful, world-honoured man, to whom God will say: 



THE DIGNITY OF SERVING. 



235 



"I gave thee wealth, and talents, and influence, 
that thou mightest be the stay of the helpless, the 
light of the ignorant, and an example of goodness 
to the world; yet hast thou, wicked servant, wrap- 
ped it all about thy miserable self. Away with thee 
to a hotter flame than theirs whom I sent thee to 
save and thou didst not!" 

We should vindicate the truth of the Gospel by 
an earnest cultivation of its spirit. 

The power of Christianity to do good, is the 
most direct proof of its divinity. No conscience 
dares to reject the evidence of practical virtue. As 
was before asserted, men may be blinded by preju- 
dices at the moment, and crucify goodness under 
perjured accusations of evil; but they cannot avoid 
yielding admiring respect to examples of self-sacri- 
ficing generosity or wide public spirit, when dis- 
tance of time or place sufficiently abstracts them 
from the misrepresentations of envy, jealousy, or 
selfishness. The skeptics of our Lord's time de- 
nied his virtues, but acknowledged his miracles, 
though they attributed them to Satanic influence. 
The skeptics of our own time deny his miracles, 
but acknowledge his virtues. In fact, Christianity, 
notwithstanding their sneers, has become so com- 
mon a synonym for goodness, that they consider 
it an affront of their character if we refuse them 



236 THE DIGNITY OF SERVING. 

the name of Christian ; and, when a professed fol- 
lower of Jesus stumbles in the narrow way, they 
make a greater cry about it, than if ten thou- 
sand infidels had broken, a thousand times over, 
every law of social well-being. What is this, but 
a testimony to the living power of Christian vir- 
tue ? 

Richly has our religion earned the unwilling tri- 
bute. What purposes, what achievements of good 
are comparable to hers? How has the love of 
Christians, emulating His who gave his life for the 
world, and commanded his Gospel to be preached 
wherever there is a human soul to hear it, after 
filling every closer circle of family and friendship, 
and neighbourhood and country, outspread to the 
utmost limits of humanity, in the grand ambition 
of missionary enterprise. Talk of civilization ! 
"Where can you find the elements of civilization, 
domestic purity, enlightened love of peace, and mu- 
tual deference to mutual rights, but where Chris- 
tianity prevails ? There have been many philoso- 
phical speculators about the origin of society and 
the social contract ; but, excepting the bloody hor- 
rors in which French atheism attempted experiment 
of its hypothesis, what effect have they produced? 
Where has there been a single nation, in ancient or 
modern times, converted from barbarism by phi- 



THE DIGNITY OF SERVING. 



237 



losophy? Forgetting this, they ridicule the church 
for attempting to Christianize the savage "before ci- 
vilizing him ; and, while they have been theorizing, 
Christianity has gone forth and done the work. 
A few simple minded men went with no other in- 
strument than the Bible, and no other skill than 
faith in the power of the Holy Ghost, and changed 
nations of licentious cannibals to decent, industri- 
ous, enlightened, because Christian, men. Even 
science has received accessions far beyond her own 
power to make, from the same unpretending and 
little regarded zeal. Never, at least since the Ma- 
cedonian conqueror filled the cabinet of Aristotle, 
have richer contributions been made to the mate- 
rial of the naturalist and geographer, than by mis- 
sionaries of the cross. The number of written and 
known languages has been trebled by the labours of 
those whose aim was not philological distinction, but 
the translation of the word of God into the varied 
tongues of their fellow sinners. Nor should it be 
forgotten, that when Great Britain and our own 
country, desired to open communications with the 
vast empire of China, neither could have found an 
interpreter among all their proud universities or 
learned societies ; but each was served by the skill 
the missionary had acquired, far in advance of 
commercial enterprise or political ambition, as he 



238 



THE DIGNITY OF SERVING. 



taught the Gospel of Jesus to those who sat in 
darkness. - 

It is from no pride that we claim these triumph? 
for Christianity, but humble gratitude and devout 
justice to the Divine Founder of our religion, 
who thus assures our faith in the power of his 
religion, to make mankind one brotherhood, and 

* These are no exaggerated statements; as may be seen by refer- 
ence to the reports of the British and Foreign Bible Societies, and 
several learned associations. It is well known, that we would be al- 
most wholly ignorant of the American Indian languages, but for the 
labours of missionaries. The missionaries of the Dutch, as early as 
the middle of the seventeenth century, had made translations into the 
tongues of their East India possessions. The pious triumvirate of 
Baptist missionaries at Serampore, Carey, Marchman and Ward, 
overcame the difficulties of more than thirty dialects of Hindusthan. 
in their versions of the Scriptures, in whole or in part. (Ed in. Ency- 
clopedia., article Language,) Their American brethren have since 
achieved a great triumph by mastering the singular Burman language, 
which is (or was. a few years since) actually taught to their students 
for the missionary life, in this country. The interpreter to the British 
Embassy in China, during their recent negotiations, was the son of the 
missionary Morrison, author of the Chinese Dictionary, and transla- 
tor of the Bible : the interpreter to the American Embassy, at the 
same time, was our excellent medical missionary, the Rev. Dr. Par- 
ker: and yet more recently. Air. S. Wells Williams, an American 
missionary printer to China, on a visit to Paris, has taken rank be- 
fore the best Sinologists among the savans there. These are a very 
few among many instances, which might be cited, if this was the 
proper place: and they are driven merely to justify the assertion^ 
made in the above text. 



THE DIGNITY OF SERVING. 



239 



crown the united family with all wisdom from 
above. 

Let it be, I say, our aim to live worthily, as ex- 
amples of Christian spirit, in seeking our highest 
honour with God, from the largest service to our 
fellow men. 

Let it be our art to use, as our first, best, only 
instrument of such philanthropic zeal, the simple 
Gospel, which is the wisdom of God and the 
power of God unto salvation ; and to rest satisfied 
with no scheme of benevolence or human improve- 
ment, which comes short of man's conversion to 
God, and sanctification for heaven. Jesus, our 
Master, was the servant of all, that he might be a 
great Saviour; and he who would be chiefest among 
his glorified ones, must be most like him in humble 
benefactions to the world. 



SERMON XXL 



VICTORY THROUGH CHRIST OYER DEATH 
AND THE GRATE. 

(AM EASTER SERMO.X.) 



VICTORY THROUGH CHRIST, 

&6. 



1 Cor. xv. 55 — 57. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, 
where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength 
of sin is the law ; but thanks be to God, which giveth us the vic- 
tory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

The sublimity of the text overpowers us. It is 
the exultation of an inspired apostle. How shall 
we, weak and imperfect Christians, dare to take 
words of such fearless joy upon our sinful lips? 

My brethren, the apostle inspired of God speaks 
also as a sinner saved by grace. The truth which 
gives him all his courage, he preaches for our confi- 
dence. His conquering Champion in the fight with 
death and the grave, "was delivered for our of- 
fences and was raised again for our justification." 
He exults as a Christian in God the Saviour; and 
he invites all, who receive the Gospel, to join in his 
triumphant faith when he exclaims, 

" Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory 
through our Lord Jesus Christ !" 



244 VICTORY THROUGH CHRIST 

It is, therefore, our privilege and our duty to 
make the words of the text our own. God streneth- 
en us, by their holy teaching, to rejoice in the vic- 
tory, and to utter the thanksgiving with our whole 
hearts ! 

The apostle has demonstrated the glorious resur- 
rection of the just in Christ by an elaborate argu- 
ment, and states his conclusion as the fulfilment of 
Isaiah's prophecy (xxv. 8), that the Lord "will swal- 
low up death in victory, and will wipe away tears 
from off all faces/*' " So," says he (54), "when this 
corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this 
mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be 
brought to pass this saying that is written, Death 
is swallowed up in victory." His pious soul, 
with that faith "which is the substance of things 
hoped for," anticipates the full triumph, now made 
certain by the resurrection and ascension to glory 
of Christ the Saviour, the Life and Forerunner of 
his church. He remembers the promise of God by 
the prophet Hosea (xiii. 14), "I will ransom them 
from the power of the grave ; I will redeem them 
from death: O Death, I will be thy plagues; Grave, 
I will be thy destruction:" and in a burst of elo- 
quent exultation he defies his former enemies; "O 
Death, where is thy sting! O Grave, where is thy 
victory!" Thou hadst a sting, Death! "The 



OVER DEATH AND THE GRAVE. 245 

sting of death is sin;" and that sting was deadly: 
" The strength of sin is the law;" but now is thy 
sting plucked out and all its venom turned into life: 
"Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory, 
through our Lord Jesus Christ !" 

The natural division of the text, and that which 
we shall follow, is 

The Challenge and The Thanksgiving. 

First: The Challenge. 

" Death, where is thy sting ! O Grave, where is 
thy victory !" 

Secondly: The Thanksgiving. 

" Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory 
through our Lord Jesus Christ!" 

Under the first head we shall consider the sting 
of death and the victory of the grave ; under the 
second, the Christian's victory over them; which 
will include an explanation of the intermediate 
verse, "The sting of death is sin, and the strength 
of sin is the law." 

First: The Challenge. 

"O Death, where is thy sting! O Grave, where 
is thy victory !" 

The apostle, following Hosea, and by a strong 
figure, challenges death and the grave separately, 
though strictly they are one. The victory of the 
grave is the consequence of the sting of death. 



246 VICTORY THROUGH CHRIST 

It is a bold challenge to demand of death, where 
is thy sting ? and of the grave, where is thy vic- 
tory? 

Where is the sting of death? — Alas! and is it 
nothing to die ? Nothing to be made sure that we 
must die ? Is it nothing to leave this fair earth, 
the light of the cheerful sun, our pleasant homes, 
our loving friends, and to be buried and become as 
dust beneath the sod and under the shade of the 
gloomy cypresses ? Is it nothing to close our senses 
forever upon all we have cherished, and sought, and 
hoped for, and prided ourselves in? Is it nothing 
to have the sad certainty before us at all times, in 
the midst of our best successes, that the hour is 
coming when the cold, narrow, ignominious grave, 
shall hide us from them all? That our plans, con- 
trive them and pursue them as we may, of ambition, 
gain, knowledge, service to those who are dear, zeal 
for our country and the welfare of mankind, must 
be broken off, and the brain which projected, the 
hand which wrought, and the heart which beat 
strong, become still as the clod, and the luxury of 
worms ? Is it nothing that every step of humanity, 
the first tottering effort of the crowing child, the 
sportive spring of youth, the firm tread of adult 
vigour, and the halt of the old man leaning upon 
his staff, is to the same vile end ? That every hour 



OVER DEATH AND THE GRAVE. 



247 



of sleep or activity, pleasure or sorrow, thoughtful- 
ness or gaiety, alike urges us irresistibly on? Is 
it nothing that the blood shall be chilled at its 
fountain, and the clammy sweat-drops start out 
upon the forehead, and the breath come slow and 
in agony, and the life, clinging desperately, be torn 
away and cast forth by fierce convulsion ? 

Has death no sting, when we hold the beloved, 
who make life precious and the world beautiful, by 
so frail, brief, melancholy a tenure? Has it no 
sting for the yearning bosom, from whose warm 
sanctuary the little one has been taken never again 
to nestle sweetly there at waking morn, or for the 
noon-tide sleep, or in the drowsy evening? Has it 
no sting in that "life-long pang a widowed spirit 
bears?" Has it no sting when the faces, which re- 
flected our smiles and beamed back upon us tender- 
ness and sympathy and faith, are so changed that 
we must send them away and bury them out of our 
sight? Or when we follow the good man, the just, 
the generous, the friend of the sorrowful and the 
stranger and the poor, the wise teacher of truth, 
the advocate of right, and the champion of the 
weak, to that bourne from which he will return to 
bless the world no more? No sting in death? Is 
there one among us such a miracle of uninterrupted 



218 VICTORY THROUGH CHRIST 

happiness, so insensible to others' grief, as not to 
have felt its keen and lingering: sharpness ? 

Where is the victory of the grave ? — "Where is it 
not ? Power cannot resist it. The kings of the 
earth lie in "the desolate places they built for 
themselves." Riches can purchase no allies skilful 
to avert the blow. The marble in its sculptured 
pomp acknowledges the struggle to have been vain. 
There is no discharge in this war for wisdom, or 
youth, or virtue, or strength. In the crowded bu- 
rial place they lie together, smitten down by the 
same hand. Obscurity affords no refuge. The 
slave falls beside his master,, and the beggar is slain 
by the way-side. Some may maintain the tight a 
little longer, but £, the same event happeneth unto 
all. 75 

Where is the victory of the grave? What con- 
queror is so mighty, when all conquerors fight in 
its battles, and then bow themselves to death with 
their victims ? The track of its march is cumbered 
with the wreck of fairest symmetry, and beauty, 
and vigour. The entire generations of past ages 
are crumbled into dust ; all the living are following 
in one vast funeral; all posterity shall follow us. 
Were all the cries of those who have perished by 
flood, or battle, or famine, or fire, or sickness, and 
the wails of the bereaved over their dead crowded 



OVER DEATH AND THE GRAVE. 249 

into one, the shriek would shake earth to the cen- 
tre. Were all the corpses that are crumbling or 
have crumbled to dust, laid upon the surface as the 
slain upon a battle field, there would not be room 
for the living among the disfigured trophies of the 
conquering grave, which, with the world for its 
prison house, must consume its captives to make 
room for more. Where is the victory of the grave ? 
The silence of the dead, the anguish of the sur- 
viving, the mortality of all that shall be born of 
mortals, confess it to be universal. 

Yet, were there nothing besides this, the calamity 
would be light. A gloomy anticipation, a few tears, 
a sharp pang, and all would be over. We should 
sleep and dream not. We should forget and be 
forgotten. But there is more than this. Whence 
came death? Why must man, with his upward- 
bearing countenance, his vast affections, his far- 
reaching thought, the most fearfully made of all 
God's wonderful works, die? How came there to 
be graves in this decorated earth, which God looked 
down upon with smiles and pronounced very good? 
My fellow-children of the dust, God is angry with 
us. None but God could take the life God gave, 
or dissolve what God has made. God has armed 
Death with fatal strength, and sent him forth the 
executioner of a divine sentence, the avenger of a 
2 i 



250 VICTORY THROUGH CHRIST 

broken law. The victory of the grave is the con- 
quest of justice over rebellion. It is omnipotence 
putting to shame and eternal defeat the treason of 
man against his Maker. It is holiness consuming 
the sinner. Death is God's wrath, for his favour 
is life. 

" The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin 
is the law." Death had no sting for man and the 
grave no victory, till sin entered into the world; 
but now " death hath passed upon all men, for that 
all have sinned." The law of God, which con- 
demns the sinner, gives Death power to seize and 
hold him fast, with all the strength of God's wrath 
against the guilty. Wherever there is sin, its 
wages are death. Wherever death is, there must 
be sin. (Yes! even in thy death, thou sinless, cru- 
cified Lamb of God, for thou didst bear the sins of 
thy people!) It is enough that we are mortal, to 
prove that we are sinners, and condemned already 
by Him who declares, "The soul that sinneth it 
shall die." Does any one doubt this? Let him solve 
the question why God slays his creatures. There 
is no evading it. Man must be a sinner, or his 
Maker a tyrant. 

Here is the sharpness of death's sting. It is the 
evidence and punishment of sin. It is the lowering 
darkness of the storm of wrath, which is eternal. 



OVER DEATH AND THE GRAVE. 251 

It is the hand of God tearing the sinner's shrieking 
spirit out of the world, and dragging him to judg- 
ment, thence to he cast down into pangs everlast- 
ing; while the grave holds the hody in its unyielding 
grasp, till the Son of Man comes in the clouds to 
execute his final vengeance upon each guilty soul, 
and its guilty instrument, the polluted flesh. O my 
hearers, it is the bitterness of death, that pleasant 
as sins may he now, death will soon and surely 
come; and after death the judgment, when every sin 
shall find us out, and the sinner have no excuse nor 
plea nor refuge, from the flashing terrors of the in- 
exorable law; and after the judgment eternal wo 
for all the condemned, and a prison-house whose 
doors allow no escape, where remorse preys upon 
the soul like a venomous worm that never dies, and 
the wrath of God burns in fire unquenchable. O 
my God, what a strange lethargy must that sinner 
be in, who feels not the sting of death, but sleeps 
stupidly on dreaming of lust, and gain, and pride, 
till death wakens him with eternal agony ! 

Here we see the apostle's boldness, the strength 
and valour of Christian faith ; for, knowing that he 
must die, and the grave cover him, he stands up 
bravely, and flings his defiance in their faces : 

" O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where 
is thy victory?" 



252 VICTORY THROUGH CHRIST 

To learn the secret of his courage, we must con- 
sider, 

Secondly : The Thanksgiving. 

■'• Thanks be to God. which giveth us the victory 
through our Lord Jesus Christ !" 

This, with the preceding verse, answers three 
questions : Whence is the victory I How is it given 
us? In what does it consist? 

1. "Thanks he to God, which giveth us the vic- 
tory!" 

God gives death its sting, and the grave its vic- 
tory. So long as God arms and strengthens them, 
it is impossible to resist them. They are God's 
ministers, and in their ministry omnipotent. God. 
therefore, alone can give us the victory, by be- 
coming our friend. When he is our friend, his 
ministers, which were our enemies, must be our 
friends and servants. Thus the believer looks to 
God, and relies wholly upon him. If there be no 
help from God. there can be none. He hopes not 
to deserve, or earn, or work the victory for him- 
self. It must be given him by an act of free grace, 
sovereign mercy, and redeeming love. But when 
God comes to his rescue, his deliverance is certain. 
Therefore he says, "Thanks be to God!" 

2. How is the victory given? Will the sting re- 
main with death ? or strength with the °;rave ? If 



OVER DEATH AND THE GRAVE. 253 

so, how will the believer conquer? Will God 
arm his enemies against him, and yet fight for 
him? Will omnipotence contend with omnipo- 
tence? or mercy deliver the sinner whom justice 
holds bound? Does sin cease to be guilty, or the 
law abate its force ? Hear the apostle : 

" Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victo- 
ry through our Lord Jesus Christ." 

"The sting of death is sin, and the strength of 
sin is the law." Death is the penalty of sin, and, 
while the law condemns the sinner, he must remain 
captive to death and the grave. But our Lord 
Jesus Christ, by satisfying the law for his people, 
plucked out the sting of death, and ravished the 
victory from the grave. 

For this the Son of God became incarnate, that 
as man, in the place of man the sinner, he might 
be capable of suffering the punishment of the law, 
which is death; while his indwelling divinity gave 
to those sufferings an infinite worth. As God, he 
had the power to dissolve the bonds of death ; but 
as the Redeemer, by his infinite atonement he pur- 
chased the right to remit the penalty of the law, 
which passed death upon the sinner. He became 
man to suffer; he died that man might live. Thus 
the apostle expressly says, (Hebrews ii. 9,) that 
Jesus " was made a little (or, as some read, a little 



254 VICTORY THROUGH CHRIST 

while,) lower than the angels, for the suffering of 
death;" and again, (14, 15,) " Forasmuch, then, as 
the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he 
also himself took part of the same, that through 
death he might destroy him that had the power of 
death, that is, the devil, (the tormentor of the dam- 
ned sinner) and deliver them who through fear of 
death, were all their life-time subject to bondage." 
He stood forth in our stead, to answer all the de- 
mands of the law against us ; and the Sovereign 
Lawgiver accepted the substitute, and laid upon 
him the iniquity of us all. Then, having for us 
honoured the law, by a life of perfect obedience 
and infinite merit, he came to the passion of death. 
On the cross, he invoked the death we deserved in 
its most cruel and shameful forms. He stood be- 
tween the venomed monster and us, and into his 
heart Death struck his sting deep, so deep that he 
could not draw it forth again, and losing all his 
power to harm, hung gasping and dying with the 
dying Saviour, and died in slaying Christ. In plain 
words, he exhausted the penalty, and satisfied the 
law, and thus death lost all its strength to hurt 
those, who by faith are crucified with Christ. 

More than this, he demonstrated his victory over 
the grave. For, though he was buried, and the 
stone rolled to the door of the sepulchre in the 



OVER DEATH AND THE GRAVE. 255 

rock, and sealed and guarded, and the grave and 
the powers of darkness struggled mightily to hold 
him fast, "it was not possible that he could he 
holden by them;" but, bursting the bars asunder, 
he dragged them forth, captivity captive, making 
an ostentation of his spoils, openly triumphing. 
Thus did God the Father own him as his Son, and 
acknowledge the penalty paid, the atonement com- 
plete. Thus did the Holy Spirit crown him Con- 
queror, and anoint him Prince of Life. Thus did 
he show himself, to the believing sight of his 
church, as their triumphant champion, Jehovah 
their Righteousness, and their " Living Way" 
through death and the grave, to the glory on high. 

But the full manifestation of his triumph and 
ours, is kept for that day, when the voice of the 
archangel and the trump of God, shall proclaim 
his final coming to judgment; and all the dead, the 
countless dead, whose dust is scattered over earth, 
beneath the sea, and in the very air, shall start to 
life ; his redeemed, glorious in beauty incorruptible, 
like his own glorified body, to shine with him, his 
brightest trophies, forever; and the wicked, who 
would not have him to reign over them, confounded 
and terrified by the terrible splendour of the once 
crucified Jesus, to hear the sentence of death whose 
mortal agonies are eternal, and be cast down to 



256 VICTORY THROUGH CHRIST 

shame unspeakable, horror, and fiery torment, whose 
smoke shall rise forever. Thus will our Lord vin- 
dicate his conquest over death and the grave, by 
compelling them to give freedom to the holy bodies 
of the redeemed ; that, as Adam walked in Paradise, 
body and soul, a perfect man. they., in their en- 
tire humanity, may enter the second Paradise of 
their inheritance undefiled, and that Jadetk not 
away; and by making them ministers of his just 
vengeance upon the souls and bodies of all the 
wicked. 

3. Wherein does our victory, through the Lord 
Jesus Christ, consist? 

'•'Thanks be to God. which giveth us the victo- 
ry through our Lord Jesus Christ!'' 

The believer triumphs in Christ's perfect atone- 
ment. 

By faith he is born again with Christ, and as 
Christ became incarnate for him, so is Christ 
formed in him. the hope of glory. By faith he 
obeys in Christ, walks with Christ in his holy life, 
and through Christ honours the divine law, which 
before he had broken. By faith he is crucified 
with Christ: "I am crucified with Christ," says 
the apostle (Gal ii. 20), Every drop of the bloody 
sweat, every pang of the lacerated flesh, every agony 
of the sinking spirit, in which Christ poured out 



OVER DEATH AND THE GRAVE. 257 

his soul unto death, went to pay his penalty, and 
discharge him from the grasp of death, the execu- 
tioner of the law's vengeance. For him death has 
no more sting. Death remains. Its precursors, 
pain and sickness and infirmity, remain. But their 
mastery over him exists no longer. He knows 
that they are changed. The curse is changed to 
blessing, the enemies to friends. Pain and sick- 
ness and infirmity, are now God's faithful chas- 
tenings ; not precursors of death, hut of a far more 
exceeding and an eternal weight of glory; and death 
is no more death, but life, life eternal, life exalted 
and heavenly. The grave has no victory over him ; 
for there he buries his sins, his sorrows, his misery, 
lusts and vileness. He leaves his body there to be 
purified against the final redemption, while his soul 
goes free to exult, where it can feel no shackle, nor 
warring law, nor foul temptation. Thus he bears 
affliction with patient hope, as he would take a me- 
dicine with the certainty of better health, or sub- 
mit to surgery, that an inveterate plague may be 
eradicated; and he calmly awaits the coming of 
death to unbolt his prison door, knock off his fet- 
ters, and lead him forth into purer air and bound- 
less delight. The sting of death lost its power, 
when his sin was pardoned ; and death itself waits 
like a captive upon its Christian master. 
2 K 



258 VICTORY THROUGH CHRIST 

The believer triumphs in Christ's resurrection. 

"I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, 
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me," says the apostle 
(Galatians ii. 20). He was dead in trespasses and 
sins; but, as the apostle reasons in Ephesians 
(1st and 2d chapters), he is quickened together 
with Christ's body by the same Holy Spirit, to a 
new and better life. He has a divine life in him. 
He is a new man in Christ Jesus; not in body, 
for there are natural causes which render its 
dissolution necessary; but a new man in soul, 
strengthened to bear the burden and resist the evil 
lusts of the flesh. Eternal life is begun in him, 
faint indeed, as life in the new-born babe, but, 
more than the earnest, the very pulsations of im- 
mortality. For this is the office and power of 
Christ, to give eternal life to as many as receive 
him; and this is the privilege of the Christian, 
even on earth, to have his conversation in heaven. 
Death has lost its power to divide him from God. 
He soars upon the wings of faith far above and 
beyond the gloomy barrier, enters the company 
of the church of the First-born, and listens to the 
harpings of the innumerable angels. Is not this a 
victory over death and the grave? 

The believer triumphs in the final resurrection. 

Christ not only arose, but he ascended up on 



OVER, DEATH AND THE GRAVE. 



259 



high. There the body, which was here bent by sor- 
row, has been made glorious in divine beauty; and 
the countenance, here channelled by tears, buffeted 
and spit upon, is altogether lovely, the radiation of 
its smile the fairest light of heaven ; and the crown 
of all power, might, and dominion, is bright in 
the splendour of many priceless jewels upon the 
brow scarred by the mocking thorns ; and heaven 
rolls up its waves of hallelujahs to the feet, in which 
the prints of the nails perpetuate the memory of 
the cross ; and the hands, yet manifesting the cruel 
malice of men, are stretched forth to bless the 
countless throngs, uttering praise to the name of 
Jesus, the Lamb that was slain. 

As the Redeemer is glorified in his flesh, so 
shall the believer be raised up to glory at the last 
day. What then to him, whose faith can grasp 
things hoped for and unseen, are all the passing 
ignominies, and pangs and insults, which now afflict 
the follower of the Man of sorrows, the Lord of 
life and glory? Every revolution of the earth rolls 
on to that fulness of adoption, "when this mortal 
shall put on immortality, and this corruption shall 
put on incorruption, and shall be brought to pass 
this saying, Death is swallowed up in victory;'' 
when these eyes, now so dim and soon to be closed 
in dust, shall behold the face of God in righteous- 



260 VICTORY THROUGH CHRIST 

ness; when these hands, now so weak and stained 
with sin, shall bear aloft the triumphant palm, and 
strike the golden harp that seraphs love to listen to ; 
and these voices, now so harsh and tuneless, shall 
swell in harmony ineffable the song of Moses and 
the Lamb, responsive to the Trisagion, the thrice 
holy, of the angels. Yes, beloved Master, we see 
thee, " who wast made a little lower than the angels 
for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and 
honour;" and thou hast promised that we shall 
share thy glory and thy crown ! 

'•'Thanks be to God, which giveth us the vic- 
tory, through our Lord Jesus Christ!" "Us!" 
and who are included in that sublime and multitu- 
dinous plural? "Not to me only," says the apostle, 
"'but to all them that love his appearing" (2 Tim. 
iv. 9). Ye shall share it, ancient believers, who 
from Adam to Christ, worshipped by figure, and 
under the shadow ! Ye shall share it, ye prophets, 
who wondered at the mysterious promises of glory 
following suffering! Ye shall share it, ye mighty 
apostles, though ye doubted when ye heard of the 
broken tomb ! ye, martyrs, whose howling ene- 
mies execrated you, as they slew you by sword, 
and cross, and famine, and rack, and the wild 
beast, and flame ! and ye, God's humble poor, 
whom men despised, but of whom the world was 



OVER DEATH AND THE GRAVE. 



261 



not worthy, God's angels are watching, as they 
watched the sepulchre in the garden, over your ob- 
scure graves, keeping your sacred dust, till the 
morning break, when it shall be crowned with 
princely splendour ! Yes, thou weak one, who yet 
hast strength to embrace thy Master's cross! thou 
sorrowing one, whose tears fall like rain, but not 
without hope, over the grave of the beloved! thou 
tempted one, who, through much tribulation, art 
struggling on to the kingdom of God ! Ye all shall 
be there, and ten thousand times ten thousand more ! 
Hark! the trumpet! The earth groans and rocks 
herself as in travail! They rise, the sheeted dead; 
but how lustrously white are their garments ! how 
dazzling their beautiful holiness ! What a mighty 
host! They fill the air; they acclaim hallelujahs; 
the heavens burst with shouts of harmony, the 
Lord comes down, and his angels are about him, 
and he owns his chosen, and they rise to meet him, 
and they mingle with cherubim and seraphim, and 
the shoutings are like thunders from the throne, 
thunderings of joy : 

"0 Death, where is thy sting! Grave, where 
is thy victory ! Thanks be to God, which giveth 
us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ !" 

Christian, death is before us. The graves are 
thick around us. There lie many dear, dearer 



262 VICTORY THROUGH CHRIST 

because they are dead. We must soon lie with 
tkera. 

I do not say, Suffer not. Jesus suffered. Faith 
teaches no stoicism. But suffer like men valiant in 
battle, whose wounds, when they smart the most, 
are incentives to new courage, and earnests of fu- 
ture honour. 

I do not say, Weep not. Jesus wept. But sor- 
row not for the Christian dead. They are safe and 
blest. Weep for the sins that unfit you to follow 
them. 

I do not say, Shudder not at the thought of death. 
Jesus trembled when he took the cup into his hand 
dropping with bloody sweat. It is human nature 
to shrink from the grave. But I can say, Fear not. 
Now it is your duty to live. When death comes, 
you shall have grace to die. Look through the dark 
avenue. Think of the good who are awaiting you at 
home, in our Father's house; think of the precious 
ones for whom you weep, but who weep no more. 
Fear not to leave behind you the living, whom you 
have commended to Jesus ; He will remember your 
trust. Be ready to go, where you shall not be 
unwelcome to your Father, your Saviour, and the 
family around the throne. There await the resur- 
rection morning, when the family shall be complete, 
"no wanderer lost." 



OVER DEATH AND THE GRAVE. 263 

But oh! be sure that you are in Christ; that you 
are covered by his atonement; that you have indeed 
received the spirit of adoption, and have put on the 
whole armour of God. Then may you be sure of 
the victory. 

But, O my God, what shall I say to those who 
have no faith in thee, no repentance, no considera- 
tion ? They are going down to death and the grave ; 
yet they live and laugh on, as though they were to 
live here forever! How shall I tell them of the 
sting of death ! the victory of the grave ! the sting 
of eternal death! the grave of everlasting fire! 
Speak thou to them, O Holy Spirit! O merciful 
Saviour! O Father, pitiful of thy children! Turn 
them, draw them, compel them, to come under the 
wings of thy pardoning love ! Spare them from a 
hopeless death, an unsanctified grave, judgment 
without an advocate in Christ, and the bitter pains 
of body and soul in hell forever ! 



SERMON XIII. 



ETERNAL DAY. 



2 L 



ETERNAL DAY. 



Revelation xxii. 5. And there shall be no night there. 

We are told that, when Moses went up, at the 
divine summons, to his memorable conference of 
forty days with Jehovah, he entered into the midst 
of the cloud of brightness, or visible glory of the 
Lord, which was like " devouring fire on the top of 
the mount, in the eyes of the children of Israel' 7 
(Exodus xxiv. 16, 17). This shows, as an eminent 
Christian father observes,* that God cannot be 
looked upon nor described. The same is true of 
Heaven, where the effulgence of God himself sheds 
an ineffable lustre upon all its holy scenes and glo- 
rified inhabitants. Thus the apostle Paul says, that 
while he was rapt into the third heaven, or Para- 
dise, he " heard unspeakable words which it is not 
lawful for man to utter" (2 Cor. xii. 2, 3, 4); or, 

* Clemens Alex. L. 1. Strom. 



268 ETERNAL DAY. 

as good critics,* conformably to some more early 
translations, would render the passage, "unspeak- 
able things which man has not words to describe." 

There are mysteries in the glory of God, be- 
cause his boundless attributes are not compre- 
hensible by our finite faculties; there are mys- 
teries in the life of saints above, because perfect 
holiness is not comprehensible by minds infirm 
through sin; but much of the mystery, which pre- 
vents our full knowledge of the heavenly state, 
arises from the unfitness and inadequacy of human 
language to convey ideas that lie beyond the range 
of our perception and experience. Our words 
have been formed with reference to things under 
the observation of our senses ; and it may be more 
than doubted whether there is a single term of 
speech, however used at present, which had origi- 
nally a spiritual or moral meaning. Hence the 
great difficulty of precision in metaphysical science ; 
the impossibility of exact definition, and the conse- 
quent misunderstanding of each other's views by 
ethical or theological disputants. Not a little of 
what the world calls pious cant or mysticism, is a 
conventional style necessarily adopted by Chris- 
tians, when treating of subjects known only to 
faith. The sacred writers themselves, though un- 

* Beza. Raphelius, M'Knight and others. 



ETERNAL DAY. 



269 



der the guiding influence of the Holy Ghost, la- 
bour to express religious truths by phrases which 
have no religious import, except figuratively; nor 
could they have made known " things unseen" 
more fully, unless a new language had been given 
them by revelation, and men were taught by mira- 
cle to read it intelligently. Even our Lord Jesus 
explained the heavenly by illustrations from the 
earthly. 

The names of no natural objects have more often 
such emblematical signification, than light and its 
opposite, darkness, because none are better for the 
purpose. Radiating from its glorious centre, and 
chasing darkness away, light is beautiful, calls 
forth life, sheds health, exhibits things as they are, 
dissipates fantastic fears, and wakens us to a cheer- 
ful activity. What light is to the body, truth is to 
the soul not blind through sin; it charms by its 
clear lustre, gives energy to thought, soundness to 
the affections, assures peace, blesses with joy, and 
moves the whole man to find pleasure in the prac- 
tice of virtue for the honour of God. Night is the 
season of repose ; but need of rest cannot be felt by 
spiritual perfection. 

" God is light," declares the apostle (1 John i. 
5); Christ is "the Sun of righteousness with heal- 
ing in his wings," declares the prophet (Malachi iv. 



270 ETERNAL DAY. 

2). All light, all truth, are from God; He is " the 
Father of lights, from whom cometh down every 
good and perfect gift" (James i. 17). All saving 
knowledge, justifying righteousness and sanctifying 
strength, are through Christ; He is "the Lord our 
righteousness" (Jeremiah xxiii. 6): "the Way, 
the Truth, and the Life" (John xiv. 6). There is 
scarcely an effect of redeeming grace, which the 
Scripture does not somewhere call "light;" and 
Christians are "'children of light" (1 Thess. v. 5), 
because children of God; they were "sometime 
darkness, but now are they light in the Lord" 
(Ephesians v. 8); for "'God, who commanded the 
light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in 
their hearts to give the light of the knowledge 
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" 
(2 Corinthians iv. 6). Gregory Nazianzen dis- 
courses most eloquently upon this: "God is the 
supreme and unapproachable light, who cannot be 
comprehended by our thoughts nor described by 
our words ; illuminating all rational creatures, be- 
ing to the intellectual what the sun is to the sensi- 
ble ; revealing himself, that the more we look up to 
him, the more our minds may be purified by his 
light, and the more we contemplate the more we 
may love him, and the more we love him, the more 
we may know him ; He beholding and comprehend- 



ETERNAL DAY 



271 



ing all things, and shedding some little rays of his 
infinite glory upon his creatures."* 

In the sphere of our present existence, God gives 
light, natural, intellectual and moral, through se- 
cond causes or means. He shines upon the earth 
through the sun, and moon, and stars, which he 
created after he had said, "Let there be light, and 
light was." (Compare Gen. i. 3 to 18.) He shines 
upon our minds and hearts, through the goodness, 
power and wisdom visible in the works of his hands, 
and, especially, through his word by the instrumen- 
tality of men. Hence our light, though coming ori- 
ginally from Him, "the Fountain of light" (Psalms 
xxxvi. 9), "in whom there is no darkness at all" (1 
John i. 5), is dim, because of the media through 
which it reaches us (1 Cor. xiii. 9—12); and our 
imperfect vision prevents us from fully enjoying 
the light we have. But, when the process of re- 
demption is complete, and the children of God 
are received among the holy angels into the hea- 
venly sphere, all the preparative economy of subor- 
dinate means will be dismissed; for, "when that 
which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall 
be done away;" God will himself be the immediate, 
only, infinite Light; and the consequence to glori 
tied man shall be an immortality of perfect holi- 

1 Oralio xL p. 693, Bened. ed. 



272 ETERNAL DAY. 

ness, knowledge, happiness, safety, and (in this 
transcending his first state of innocence) untiring 
activity, his hody being etherealized into spiritual 
substance (1 Cor. xv. 44), without appetites (Luke 
xx. 35), necessity of food (Rev. vii. 16), or friction 
of its particles. Thus the text, 

There shall be no night there ; and they 
need no candle (a mean of man's invention); 
neither light of the sen (a mean of God's pro- 
vision); for the Lord God giveth them light. 

We are now prepared, with the help of the con- 
nexion and other relative Scriptures, to edify and 
comfort ourselves with these most precious words, 
which discover the doctrine, that, where God shines 
in the glory of his immediate Presence (Rev. xxi. 
23), there can be no night. This teaches us, that 
in the world promised to Christians, there shall 
be neither sin, nor ignorance, nor sorrow, nor 
fear, nor weariness, any more forever. 

First : There is no sin in heaven. 

The essence of sin lies in a departure from God. 
(Hebrews iii. 12.) When man came first into 
being, God was near to him as his Father, his 
Teacher, and his Friend. As the sun, shining 
through a clear element, makes it bright like him- 
self, so did holy God pervade the pure soul with 
his own image. (Genesis i. 27.) But the soul, by 



ETERNAL DAY. 



273 



a mysterious use of its freedom, turned away from 
God to another teacher, and sought for fancied 
good in forbidden, and, therefore, unblessed things ; 
his own self came between him and the sanctifying 
influence; shadows fell thick upon his spirit, and, 
troubled and polluted by irregular passion and appe- 
tite (Is. lvii. 20), it no longer received or reflected 
the likeness of beauty, and truth, and glory. Sin is 
in man's heart; but, the evil bias of his desires per- 
verting his judgment, the good creatures of divine 
bounty about him become occasions of fresh dis- 
obedience, and easily permit a subtle tempter to 
lead him farther astray. The evil heart of unbe- 
lief, which began by departing from the living God, 
draws back — and back — and back unto consummate 
perdition (Heb. x. 38, 39). 

So, when God determines to restore a wanderer 
from sin and death unto righteousness and life, he 
meets him with a new light from above, and turns 
his merciful face upon the soul which had turned 
away from him ; not, indeed, immediately, for its 
faculties are too weak to bear his full lustre, but 
through the human face of Christ his Son, our El- 
der Brother. Nay, the Holy Ghost, by the truth 
and with it, actually shines into the human spirit, 
though with a reserved, and, as yet, very partial but 
increasing rays. As the light enters, and according 
2 M 



274 ETERNAL DAY. 

to its degree, enter healing and strength. The 
thoughts are again attracted upward, and, less agi- 
tated by permitted insurgencies of the lower na- 
ture, the image of God dawns gradually upon them; 
the judgment, assisted by faith, recovers its percep- 
tion of things eternal in contrast to things seen; 
the sophistries of temptation prevail not against 
higher motives, and, more and more as the penitent 
turns again to the true source of good, he is sanc- 
tified by a divine life, and filled with a divine 
peace. 

When the process of preparation is complete, 
and the soul released from all carnal impediment, 
the ransomed man will be caught up into the second 
and better Paradise. Then, there will he no ne- 
cessity for the interposition of means between God 
and his sanctified creature. God will pour him- 
self into the soul: and the soul, clear from defiling 
stain, transparent in sincerity, pure as its origin, 
and calm through His peace, "'which passeth all un- 
derstanding,^ shall he transfigured, like Christ upon 
Tabor, by glory shining upon it and glory from 
within it, to the lustrous image of Him who sitteth 
upon the throne ; no polluting lust to solicit, and 
every tempter driven far away by His holiness 
burning like a fence of devouring fire against every 
• ; thing that worketh abomination, or maketh a lie." 



ETERNAL DAY. 



215 



This transfiguration the apostle Paul speaks of, 
as being begun on earth by the enlightening power 
of the Holy Ghost, when he says (2 Cor. iii. 17, 
18): "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is 
liberty. For we all, with open face beholding as 
in a glass (or, reflecting as mirrors) the glory of 
the Lord, are changed into the same image from 
glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord." 
The apostle John (1 John iii. 2) anticipates the 
fulness of it, at the coming of Jesus Christ, as 
the best idea he could give of the believer's glory : 
"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth 
not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that 
when He shall appear, we shall be like him, for we 
shall see him as he is;" and David (Ps. xvii. 15) 
exulted in the same hope: "As for me, I will be- 
hold thy face in righteousness ; I shall be satisfied 
when I awake with thy likeness." 

Brethren, what comfort there is in this promise ! 
Here we mourn over our many sins, not only as 
offensive to God, but because they come like a 
cloud between us and him, throwing us into the 
shadow and chill of death. We carry about with 
us our worst enemy ; our duties lie in the midst of 
temptations ; our best purposes come short through 
infirmity, and we go to the throne of grace with 
shame on our consciences, scarcely daring to look 



276 ETERNAL DAY. 

up. Yet, when light breaks in upon us through the 
ordinances, though dim, compared to the glory of 
heaven, as the stars to the sun ; and we feel the 
Spirit contending successfully against our corrup- 
tion, and the love of Christ expelling from our 
hearts their unholy preferences; how we love to 
linger on our knees, or over the Word of God, or 
among the worshipping brotherhood, or under the 
voice of the preacher "who bringeth glad tidings;" 
and, finding it good to be where Jehovah has been 
communing with us, we dread to go forth into the 
open world of danger, and gloom, and death ! But 
in heaven there is no more sin. Even the tears of 
repentance shall be wiped from our eyes. We shall 
look into the face of God, as children conscious of 
obedience, with reverent boldness. Our purified 
vision will not shrink from the supreme effulgence ; 
the conflict will be over, and love reign in liberty 
over all our affections ; nor shall we be called to 
venture any more out, but serve continually and 
forever before the radiating throne. " O how great 
is thy loving kindness, O God ! therefore the chil- 
dren of men put their trust under the shadow of 
thy wings. They shall be satisfied with the fulness 
of thy house; thou shalt make them drink of the 
river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the Foun- 



ETERNAL DAY. 



277 



tain of Life, and in thy light shall we see light." 
" There shall he no night there." 

Secondly: There is no ignorance in heaven. 

Here, though we may he permitted to attain some 
little knowledge, it is ignorance compared to the 
possible extent and accuracy of human intelligence. 
Even in heaven, the soul will be forever expanding, 
and continually making fresh acquisitions ; nor can 
the finite ever comprehend the infinite ; yet there 
will he no error, nor any lack of sufficient knowledge 
for the purposes and satisfaction of the immortal 
mind. When the grand principles of all truths are 
fairly apprehended, there is, properly speaking, no 
ignorance ; though the successful inquirer has not 
yet, nor ever can, follow them all out to their logi- 
cally inevitable consequences. 

Before we pass from our present darkened state 
to that of perfect knowledge, there must be a change 
in the learners; a change in the subject of their 
study, and a change in their teacher. 

A change in the learners. Our perceptions are 
impaired by sin; we do not see things as they real- 
ly are. Our moral sensibility is depraved; we do 
not honestly desire to find the good or the true so 
much, as what will please our vicious inclinations. 
Our memories are shattered, and we cannot call 



2~S ETERNAL DAY. 

up or grasp together, at the moment,, all the ideas 
we have stored away. Our time is broken, and our 
chain of thought interrupted, by the constant oc- 
currence of petty cares or follies. From all these 
causes, the reason is weak, the understanding con- 
fused, and the judgment distorted. 

In heaven these imperfections will he no more. 
Our spiritual sight will he clear and strong. The 
celestial atmosphere will he too pure for any illu- 
sion. Our desire will he only for the right and the 
holy. Our memory, restored to soundness, will 
hold ever ready for our use. the material it has 
gained. Our joyful, sole occupation, and that 
of all around us. will be to observe truth; and. 
so far as it is capable, with its vastly increased 
and ever increasing energies, the action of the soul 
in all its powers will be unerring, vigorous, and 
direct. 

A change in the subjects of study. Here, with 
few exceptions, our reasoning is all backward from 
effects to causes. We ascend from individuals to 
species, and from species to genera. The aim and 
labour of philosophy is to simplify, and to arrange 
the various and uncounted phenomena which come 
within its ken, under few laws; those, as science 
advances, merging into still fewer, thus tending up- 
ward from multiplicity to unity. Here, however. 



ETERNAL DAY. 



219 



lies a grand difficulty, not so much in the want of 
facts, as in the multitude of them. It is impossible 
for us, as we have seen, to grasp all ; equally impos- 
sible to detect with perfect accuracy, the precise 
bearing they may have upon each other. Yet, as 
we know very well by experience, though we have 
ten thousand correct data, if we lack one, or one 
be misplaced, our whole reasoning may be futile 
or absurd; just as in the tables of an account- 
ant, if one figure be missing or in the wrong 
column, the results of his balance-sheet must cer- 
tainly be error. Neither is the reason strong 
enough to climb sufficiently high upon the steps of 
the immense ladder, which reaches from earth to the 
skies. We become dazzled by the intense lustre ; 
laws magnifying as the inferior coalesce, become 
too vast for our hold ; and we find ourselves at 
the utmost height of our knowledge, like one who 
has climbed from Alp to higher Alps, till, from 
the most lofty peak, he looks upward into the in- 
finite space beyond, rolling full of orbs glorifying 
God. 

In heaven, our reasoning will be entirely the re- 
verse. There we shall study not the effects of 
God's power, but God, the First Cause, himself. 
"The Lord God Almighty will be our light." If 
to know things in their causes be wisdom, he, who 



280 ETERNAL DAY. 

knows God. must be perfect in his philosophy; he 
stands face to face with the one single, grand, ori- 
ginal law, from which all radiate, and to which 
all tend. He, who was tired in his earthly attempts 
to climb the mystery, is now rapt up by the Crea- 
tor to Himself; and looks down with easy sight 
and a perfect intelligence, upon all the dependent 
economy. 

What a change this must make in our knowledge, 
may be feebly illustrated by a well known fact of mo- 
dern science. It was not until the minds of men had 
been searching after principles for more than fifty- 
six centuries, that (what the world would call) an 
accident discovered to Newton the cardinal law of 
gravitation; and in a moment, as it were, his keen 
sagacity saw the method by which the Almighty 
condescends to hold the universe together. All 
his subsequent' developings of the system were 
merely a detail of steps to an ascertained conclu- 
sion; he had, what had bafrled mankind since crea- 
tion, the true theory ; he walked behind the vail 
with the God of Nature, and saw the application 
of his power. In a word, his reasoning was from 
cause to effect, instead of wandering amidst a maze 
of effects to find a clue for the discovery of a cause. 
Thus does the babe, which its heavenly Father 
takes to his own bosom out of its first sleep on the 



ETERNAL DAY. 



281 



bosom of its mother, learn more in one half hour of 
heaven than all that science has recorded in the 
libraries of earth. 

We have spoken of physical truth; but it must 
not be forgotten, that as moral truth is incompara- 
bly more valuable, so it is incomparably more diffi- 
cult to discover with our present opportunities. 
We know nothing certainly, but what has been re- 
vealed. We cannot even define what right is. 
Until we learn from Himself, that the will of our 
common infinite Parent is the law of our brother- 
hood, and what his will is, all our relations are 
undefined, and duty seems to conflict with duty. 
But how easy will the philosophy of morals become, 
when purified from sin and self, and their progeny 
of errors, we look out from the perfection of God, 
" whose are all things," upon the consequences of 
his holy, harmonious attributes? 

A change in the Teacher. All knowledge, in- 
deed, is derived from God, and, to a certain extent, 
the Holy Ghost enlightens the devout soul; but 
God, even the Holy Ghost, works by the human 
reason; the reason of others teaching our reason 
to teach ourselves. The Scriptures, inspired as 
they are, were written by holy men ; and only so 
much light, as could be condensed within the nar- 
row circumference of their faculties, can reach our 
2 N 



282 ETERNAL DAY. 

own with illuminating power. " The foolishness of 
preaching," the examples of pious life, the counsels 
of faithful friendship, the histories and lessons of 
the past and present, belong to this instrumentality. 

Knowledge so derived must necessarily he defec- 
tive, because partaking of the defect in its medium. 
But in heaven, God will he immediately our Teacher. 
By ways of instruction far above our ways, as the 
heavens are higher than the earth, he will commu- 
nicate ideas to his adoring and happy pupil. Nay, 
as He is essentially truth and knowledge, wherever 
he shines, truth and knowledge must be also ; and, 
thus, when, by an inscrutable mystery, he communi- 
cates Himself to the soul and pervades it with Him- 
self, shall his ideas become the ideas of his saints, 
so far as their capacity, perpetually enlarging, will 
admit. I know not how this can be; but it is not 
more difficult to understand, than how we shall see 
God as he is, and, therefore, be like him, partici- 
pating in his truth as in his holiness, and, therefore, 
perfect in both. 

Christians, how this thought humbles us in our 
present ignorance, but uplifts us with the hope of 
our eternal knowledge ! What, except love, so ra- 
vishing as truth? How are we pained now by un- 
certainty, and doubt, and forgetfulness ! How sadly 
we grow weary in our researches, and compare the 



ETERNAL DAY. 



283 



vastness of possible science with the brevity of life ! 
How difficult in our corruption and weakness, to 
read the true meaning of what imperfect men have 
intensely striven to communicate by our poor lan- 
guage ! "What joy do we feel, when any genuine 
fact in natural or moral things is made certain! 
What must be the strength of that virtue, which is 
able to perceive, to comprehend, and to feel all the 
motives of right ! In heaven there will be no more 
ignorance. There we shall be strengthened to look 
upon God. God will be the volume of our study. 
God will guide us into all truth. We shall know 
God, and " Him to know aright is life eternal." 
" There is no night in heaven." 

Thirdly : There is no sorrow in heaven. 

Here sorrow is inevitable, for we are sinners, 
and, 

" 'Tis the eternal law, that where guilt is, 
Sorrow must answer it." 

Even though the sin be pardoned, and the 
guilt taken away by the blood of Christ, the na- 
tural effects of sin remain. God does not change 
them, but sanctifies them, as they are, for the 
good of his people, in a discipline of purification. 
The happiness, which comes to the believer more 
directly from God, is interrupted and impaired by 
the sinfulness of the heart which receives it ; and. 



2S4 ETERNAL DAY. 

according to our previous argument, the happiness, 
which we draw from Him through his creatures, 
partakes of their imperfection. The sorest suffer- 
ings of the soul are those of wounded, bereaved, 
disappointed, or betrayed affection. The links 
which bind us to the children of death and sin. 
must conduct to our hearts pain and disquietudes. 

But in heaven we shall dwell in the light of God. 
Some memory of our relations here may follow us ; 
but the relations themselves shall have passed away 
with former things. There will be only one tie. 
sonship to God. and. in Him. brotherhood with the 
holy children of his Presence. "We shall be holy, 
they will be holy, as God our Father is holy. We 
shall be perfect, they will be perfect, as God our 
Father is perfect. We shall be immortal, they 
will be immortal, as God our Father is immortal. 
There can be no excess, no misplacement, no be- 
trayal of affection, when we shall love God. and He 
shed into our souls and the souls of all the innume- 
rable family his own divine love, infinitely trans- 
cending our experience of it here. How can there 
be sorrow, when there is neither sin to cause it. nor 
ignorance to occasion it: but. in their place, the 
Holv Presence of God. who is purity, and truth, 
and love? How can there be sorrow, when there 
is no want, no treachery, no pain, no death? The 



ETERNAL DAY. 



285 



Lord God, with his own hand, will wipe away the 
last tear from the eyes of the redeemed, as they 
leave earth behind them to rest in his embrace for- 
ever. 

That our text means this, the prophet assures us, 
when he says, "The sun shall no more be thy light 
by day (the sun so often clouded by storms); nei- 
ther for brightness shall the moon give light unto 
thee (the moon that waxes and wanes, and some- 
times hides herself altogether) ; but the Lord shall 
be thine everlasting Light, and thy God thy glory. 
Thy sun shall no more go down, nor thy moon 
withdraw herself; for the Lord shall be thine ever- 
lasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be 
ended" (Is. lx. 19, 20). 

Beloved brethren, what a vision is this ! No 
sorrow, no pain, no sad memory, no bleeding trust, 
no sick bed, no grave ! How should we hasten to 
place our affections there, away from this world of 
tribulation, trial and decay ! How patiently, as we 
look by faith on the things that are not seen, should 
we bear these light afflictions, which here are but for 
a moment, but there, if we be faithful in learning 
their holy lessons, "shall work out for us a far more 
exceeding and eternal weight of glory!" The sor- 
row may be sharp, for our sins have been many, 
and their stains are deep ; but it shall endure only 



286 ETERNAL DAY. 

for a night; the joy cometh in the morning of an 
eternal day, and " there shall be no night there." 

Fourthly: There is no fear in heaven. 

"The gates of the city shall not be shut at all 
by day; for there is no night there," as we are 
told in the 25th verse of the last chapter. Among 
the most melancholy proofs of the fall are the de- 
fences, which men are obliged to make against the 
evil violence of their fellow men. The walled city 
declares man to be in fear of man. He fears open 
violence often by day; he is especially watchful 
against its stealthy approach by night. Alas ! there 
is one citadel we can never guard closely enough 
against one enemy, the heart against sin. Even as 
we hope for our eternal rest, we are to fear lest 
though "the promise be left us," the enemy should 
surprise us and we "come short of it." 

But in heaven there is no fear. There are no 
traitors within, and no enemy dare approach it from 
without. The thunder of war will be never heard 
about it by day, nor need the gate be shut by night. 
Without and far remote will be all our foes, and 
our hearts will be sanctified to be our safe friends 
within. The glorified spirit, conscious of present 
blessedness, will have no dread of any change, for 
there will be none, but " from glory to glory." Evil 
entered the first paradise, and no naming cherubim 



ETERNAL DAY. 



287 



guarded it until the fallen sinners were driven out. 
But the glory of God is the light of heaven, and 
its eternal defence. The Mood of the Lamb was 
sprinkled upon its door-posts by his own hand, as 
he passed through them from his cross, conqueror 
over him that had the power of death, to his 
throne ; death can never reach any of its sinless in- 
habitants ; and, as they turn to worship before that 
throne and Him who was slain that sitteth thereon, 
they see the rainbow of the covenant about his 
glorious head, and know that storm or wrath can 
never return (Rev. iv. 3). 

O God, keep thy trembling children till they pass 
through this dark and dangerous way ! If thou be 
with us, we shall fear no evil. Then take us to the 
safety of thy Presence, for "there is no night there." 

Fifthly : There shall be no weariness in 

HEAVEN. 

Here our infirm bodies, our infirm minds, our in- 
firm hearts, are often weary: weary with labour, 
weary with doubt, weary with trial. The night 
falls welcome around us, that we may sleep, and 
forget, and be refreshed. Our very joys weary us, 
and extreme delight affects us like sorrow. Night 
succeeds day, until we sink at last into the quiet 
grave. Even innocent man needed rest, for God 
made the night that he might repose. 



2S8 ETERNAL DAY. 

But in heaven there is no weariness. The mind 
is never weary with thoughts of God : the heart is 
never weary of loving God; the soul is never weary 
of serving and praising God. The body, after the 
resurrection will partake of the soul's purity; and 
voices, unceasing with melody, will forever rejoice 
before God; and hands, unceasing in zeal, forever 
do the holy will of God ; and eyes, unceasing in their 
regard, forever gaze upon the glory of God. There 
is no weariness in heaven, because God is the life, 
the strength, the food, the atmosphere, the per- 
vading joy of all the shining ones. "There shall 
be no night there.'' 

O what a contrast to our present weakness ! 
How feebly, believers, do your faculties second 
your best zeal ! How are our labours interrupted 
by the necessity of rest ! Now, at the close of the 
Sabbath, though our work has been only praise, 
we feel our flesh failing, and our souls sympa- 
thizing with it; and the sleep that ends our sweet 
enjoyments will be not ungrateful. What happi- 
ness will it be when the Sabbath is eternal, the 
worship perpetual, and the glory unshadowed for- 
ever! 

Night is around us now; but 

There shall be no night there. 



SERMON XIV. 



LOXGIXG FOR REST 

(a meditation.) 



2 o 



LONGING FOR REST. 



Psalm lv. 6. And I said, Oh! that I had wings like a dove! 
For then would I flee away and be at rest. 

This is the mournful wish of one whom the 
world would have called fortunate and great; for- 
tunate, in rising from a sheepfold to a throne ; great, 
in the strength of his kingdom, the vigour of his 
policy, and the success of his arms. But did he 
think himself fortunate? he sighs to be again in 
the wilderness, far off from the haunts of men; or 
great? he envies the freedom of a timid bird. 

The monarch of Israel has shut himself within a 
chamber of his palace, to pour out before God the 
troubles, that are breaking his spirit; and, opening 
his dark saying upon the harp, he looks forth, as 
was his wont, towards the east. There is a storm 
rising, "a windy storm and tempest." It has star- 
tled a gentle dove, and swift upon wings silvery as 
snow (Ps. lxviii. 13), thrown into bright relief by 
the cloud behind her, she shoots past, far, far away 
to the quiet shade, where she has built her nest in 



292 LOXGIXG FOR REST. 

the cleft of the rock. " that I could so fly away," 
exclaims the royal mourner, "upon a wing as light, 
with a temper as harmless, to a rest as safe!"'' 

The world look up admiringly and wishfully at 
power, and riches, and splendour, and have made a 
silly proverb. "As happy as a king:" yet a great 
master of the human heart, unconsciously trans- 
lating what another had written two thousand years 
before,* makes a king say. as he lies down upon his 
sleepless pillow. 

" Happy lowly clown ! 
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown!" 

David had a rich kingdom, children whom he 
fondly loved, friends whom he counselled with in 
entire trustfulness: and his chosen friend, his 
closest counsellor, joined with his darling son. the 
beautiful Absalom, in a murderous plot against his 
kingdom and life ; nor was he ever out of trouble 
from his anointing to his death. 

Would he have been a better or a happier man as a 
shepherd ? The frequent delight with which he turns 
to rural and pastoral scenes, shows that he thought 
so; his flock would have been more easily guided 
than stiff-necked Israel; the pastures of the wilder- 
ness more peaceful than the camp or turbulent city: 



* Euripides. Hecuba. 621-6. 



LONGING FOR REST, 



293 



and the lion or the bear, or the human prowler about 
his sheepfold, enemies less malignant and dangerous 
than an apostate friend or a thankless child. But, 
so far as we can judge from his history, particularly 
in his more prosperous days, we should think not. 
David was not fitted for inaction. The determined 
courage with which, when a stripling and for the 
first time among armed men, he undertook to fight 
Goliath, would never have brooked a quiet, se- 
cluded life. His poetical temperament, keen sensi- 
bilities, quick impulses and strong passions, made a 
heavier burden and constant occupation necessary 
to keep down his insurgent spirit ; so that the cir- 
cumstances of his crown may rather have restrained, 
than called forth, the evil of his character. He was 
far from being a perfect man as king ; but he might 
have been a worse one as a shepherd, where appe- 
tites, which grow rampant in idleness, would have 
been opposed only by slight responsibilities and 
petty interests. 

Would he have found rest had he fled again 
to the wilderness? Is there no trouble in shep- 
herd's tents, no quarrel as agitating to their un- 
enlarged minds and narrow spheres, as conspira- 
cies and wars to statesmen and princes ? Care- 
browed man smiles at a child's grief over a broken 
toy; vet is that anguish as keen as the little one 



294 LONGING FOR REST. 

can feel. It matters not what the grief be, if it 
fill the heart. Or is man free from himself when 
alone in the wilderness? Can he leave thought, 
hope, memory, affection and conscience, behind 
him, and so create a vacuum, where he can know 
nothing but a mere dull, cold sense of existence? 
No, my brethren, wherever man is, there is sin; 
and sin and peace never dwell together. The 
plague is in his own soul. He carries trouble with 
him, as he carries himself. Besides, there is a long- 
ing for one's kind, which will not permit us to rest 
away from the very instruments and occasions of 
our disquietudes ; but would soon drive the volun- 
tary exile back to a world, whose treacheries and 
wrongs he had thought to escape. 

But why speak only of the king or the shepherd? 
Is there* one among us, at least one, that has passed 
the heyday of youth, whose soul does not often 
echo the wish, " O that I had the wings of a dove, 
then would I fly away and be at rest!" 

It is not peculiar to any individual or any cir- 
cumstances. It belongs to humanity, to the world. 
We may amuse, may excite, perhaps, for a while, 
stupify, the heart which makes us human; but it 
is never at rest, never at peace, never healthfully 
tranquil. Man has never lost the consciousness of 
banishment from Eden. He, who was created 



LONGING FOR REST. 



295 



among flowers, can never rest among thorns. There 
is a never-ceasing voice, which God has put within 
him, like a conscience, ' This is not rest ! This is 
not rest !' It is heaven calling us home, bidding us 
look up and hope for things above, until the hope 
shall so purify our natures, gross with sin, that, 
like Jesus our Forerunner, we shall be able to 
attain the second Paradise, and walk once more 
with God in holy peace. Are they, who live with- 
out God in the world, thrusting religion aside be- 
cause she has too sad a face, at rest ? Is there not 
a craving for something more, a crying of, • Give ! 
Give! Give!' within them, that grows louder and 
more importunate, as they attempt to satisfy it with 
any thing of earth? 

God alone is peace. There is no peace, but the 
peace of God. We must enter into God, and 
dwell among his holy attributes, if we would be 
at rest. In that far height, the storms which deso- 
late earth, never blow. The clouds, which sha- 
dow earth, are far beneath it. The passions, which 
agitate earth, can never ascend to it. There all 
is calm, bright and pure. We need pardon, before 
we can enter that justice; sanctification, before 
we can live in that holiness ; a truth-loving mind, 
to enjoy that wisdom, and a Christ-like love for 
God and man and unfallen angels, to assimilate 



296 LONGING FOR REST. 

with that goodness and mercy. Yet all these 
does Christ promise to his disciples, when he says. 
" Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; 
not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let 
not your hearts he troubled, neither he afraid.'' 
He came to preach peace on earth. He died to 
purchase peace for men. He lives again, " the 
Prince of Peace," to send down a foretaste of 
everlasting peace for every soul, that relies by 
faith upon his atonement for pardon, and upon his 
Spirit for a heart and mind and strength to do well. 
•• There is no peace, saith my God. for the wicked;" 
and we are all wicked in his sight, until we are 
"washed and sanctified and justified in the name of 
the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.*' 
To this peace the Gospel invites us all. It waits 
our asking. " Come unto me all ye that labour 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," 
calls the blessed Master. Why seek rest among 
the vanities of the creature, when it is offered to 
us by Christ, in God ? 

But is the Christian at once received into per- 
fect rest? Is the wish never heard in his heart. 
" O that I had wings like a dove, for then would 
I fly away and be at rest !" 

"There remaineth a rest for the people of God;" 
but the rest is not yet. So long as the Christian 



LONGING FOR REST. 



297 



is in the corrupt body, and exposed to the tempta- 
tions of the world, the flesh and the devil, so long 
as any "sin remaineth in him," he cannot have rest. 
He may have moments of peace, and even joy, 
while on earth, because even here he has "fellow- 
ship with the Father and with his Son Jesus 
Christ;" and, says the apostle, "Our conversation 
is in heaven." Still he has not perfect rest, far 
from it. His blessed and holy Master had not rest 
here, for he was passing through our sorrows, and 
battling with our temptations. How may his yet 
sinful and infirm follower hope for it? 

The Christian is human; the world is full of 
sorrow; afflictions throng about himself; he sees 
others suffering, and he must feel. The nicer re- 
ligion has made his sensibilities, the more keenly 
he must feel. Jesus, weeping beside the grave of 
his friend, tells us this is not our rest. 

The Christian is changed in heart; he longs to 
be holy; but, even while he would do good, 
evil is present with him; for there is "a law 
in his members warring against the law of his 
mind, bringing him into captivity to the law of 
sin and death." He sees sin around him, and, 
if his love for God be strong, " rivers of water 
run down his eyes because that men keep not 
God's law." This is not his rest, "it is polluted." 
2 p 



298 



LONGING FOR REST. 



There is no peace for him, but where there is no 
sin. He attempts to pray, to praise, to serve God; 
but it is with such mistakes, such weakness, such 
mingling of improper motives, that he mourns over 
his best righteousness. He can have no rest until 
he is perfectly holy. 

He loves his God above all; and he counts all 
things but loss that he may know him, be with him, 
enjoy him, and live under the light of his unveiled 
face. Here he is in shadows, sometimes in darkness ; 
and, even when the light shines brightly, his eyes 
are so dim and bleared by sin and tears, that it 
dazzles and blinds him. He never can be at rest 
until he is in heaven, where he shall be like Christ, 
because he "shall see him as he is." 

But is it right for him to desire, that he may "fly 
away and be at rest?" Right to desire rest? Cer- 
tainly. Is it not promised ? Is not the hope of hea- 
ven the great privilege of the Gospel? Are we not 
"saved by hope?" Our "hearts purified by hope?" 
Our courage sustained by "hope, which maketh not 
ashamed?" Is not hope "the anchor of the soul," 
making it strong and steadfast? Can we believe 
Christ or follow him, without this "lively hope ?" 
Is it not the very sign of the Christian, the seal and 
earnest of the Spirit? (Eph. i. 13, 14.) Yet there 
cannot be hope without desire ; and just as hope is 



LONGING FOR REST. 



299 



strong, the desire will be. Jesus desired to depart, 
when he said, "Now, Father, I come to thee;" and 
his great apostle desired to "depart and be with 
Christ, which is far better;" and so we are to "keep 
ourselves in the love of God, looking for the coming 
of Jesus Christ." Truly we were of all men most 
miserable, if, when borne down by care or sorrow, 
persecuted and misjudged, pursued by temptation 
every where, even to the house of God and our clo- 
sets, and clogged by the flesh about us aiding the 
temptation from without, we might not desire rest. 
No, my beloved brethren, the new-born babe "de- 
sires the simple milk of the word," and, as he drinks 
it in, it is in him like a fountain of desires "spring- 
ing up to everlasting life." 

Yet this desire for rest must be regulated. We 
are to desire rest only where God promises it : the 
beginning and the increase of it in Christ on earth, 
the consummation of it with Christ in heaven. We 
have no right to fly to the wilderness, and leave 
duty behind us. We have no right to crave ease 
and freedom from that trouble, which, in this world, 
always accompanies doing good. That is the re- 
creancy of unbelief, or the sloth of the sluggard. 
The troubles God sends upon us, the temptations 
we meet, the bereavements we suffer, are as truly 
blessings as his gifts and consolations, if we use 



300 LONGING FOR REST. 

them aright. To shun them, would be to shun 
God's grace. We are not to judge what circum- 
stances are best for us. God changed David from 
a shepherd to a king : and David had no right to 
desire a shepherd's seclusion again, any more than, 
when he was a shepherd, he had a right to desire a 
throne. There are troubles in obscurity., and trou- 
bles in eminence. There are troubles everywhere. 
God puts us in just the troubles we need (1 Pet. 
i. 6). As well might the husbandman refuse rain, 
because the cloud that sheds it hides the sun. as 
the Christian refuse trial, because it makes him 
sad. 

"We must desire the perfect rest only when God 
is willing to give it. It is a sort of suicide to long 
for death. The refiner knows best when to take 
the gold from the furnace: and none would wish to 
retain any dross that would make us unfit to shine 
in the Redeemer's crown. It is a blessed thing; 
that we are to die. It is a blessed thing: to be will- 
ing to die. It is a blessed thing to desire heaven 
after death. But to be impatient for death, is not 
the spirit of a faithful servant. He may " desire 
his shadow" (Job vii. 2); but he shrinks not from 
his work until the evening is come and the time 
for rest. " We shall have eternity to rest in." said 
an indefatigable philosopher. Let it be the Chris- 



LONGING FOR REST. 



301 



tian's only anxiety to increase the reward of his 
rest through grace. 

My brethren, learn a parable of the dove. It 
is a sweet bird to the Christian's associations. It 
was the dove, that flew with the green leaf of the 
olive branch to Noah, the venerable type of Christ. 
It is " as doves flying to their windows," the prophet 
prefigures the church. To be "harmless as doves," 
was our blessed Master's command; and, "hovering 
in a bodily shape like a dove," the Holy Spirit de- 
scended upon the meek and innocent Jesus, to sanc- 
tify him for his work. for wings like a dove, to 
fly away and be at rest ! Is this our prayer ? The 
Holy Spirit can answer it, by making us gentle and 
harmless, and swift in our desires for God. And 
where shall we fly, but to the ark of the covenant? 
at whose open window, Jesus, our Noah (Rest), 
stands ready to take within a safe shelter all who 
bear the word of promise in their mouths. All the 
world beside is a waste of waters, troubled and 
dark. 

O for thy wings, thou Heavenly Dove ! O for the 
rest in the bosom of Jesus ! Amen. 



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